The 10 Biggest Surprises From The Golden Globe Film Nominations
The 72nd annual Golden Globe Award nominations were announced this morning and overall they were a uncharacteristically classy affair — save a few anomalies here and there. “Boyhood,” “Birdman,” “The Imitation Game,” “Selma” and “The Theory of
Everything” all received strong support across multiple categories, helping to solidify them as the five locks in the Best Picture Oscar race. That was certainly no surprise. But a few films that got shafted altogether definitely seemed atypical for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. One of the most unexpected things about the nominations was much they held back on the HFPA’s tendency toward celebrity worship. Here are the 10 biggest surprises.
The Globes’ love affair with Angelina Jolie is not “Unbroken.”
It seemed really hard to imagine the Globes ignoring Angelina Jolie and “Unbroken” given the group’s history of support for her. She has seven nominations, including one for her previous directorial effort “In The Land of Blood and Honey” in the foreign film category. We fully expected the HFPA to not only give her a Best Director nod for “Unbroken,” but also a Best Actress nomination in the Musical/Comedy field for “Maleficent.” But instead the Globes snubbed both films, as well as her husband Brad Pitt’s own war drama “Fury.” Pitt did get a nomination for producing “Selma,” but one wonders if the couple will even show up given all the other snubs — and the salt in the wound that may or may not be Jennifer Aniston getting an acting nod for “Cake.” Maybe the HFPA were on team Jennifer all along…
Clint Eastwood gets the shaft.
Another individual that the Globes have almost never failed to throw tons of love at is Clint Eastwood. He’s received a whopping 12 nominations and 3 wins since 1989, even one for Best Original Song in 2009 for “Gran Torino.” But his “American Sniper” failed to manage a single nomination, and on a much, much less surprising note, neither did “Jersey Boys.”
“Gone Girl” gets four nominations… but not Best Picture.
David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” got a much needed boost from the Globe nominations, but there was something mildly backhanded about it. “Girl” got nods for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Original Score — but then didn’t make the cut for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Still, this is a nice push for the film given that it was almost entirely ignored by critics’ groups.
Wes Anderson gets a Best Director nomination.
Joining Fincher in the Best Director race was Wes Anderson, whose “The Grand Budapest Hotel” perhaps got the biggest overall Oscar boost from the Globes. The film got nominations for Best Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical, Best Director, Best Screenplay and an acting nod for Ralph Fiennes. Considered an Oscar longshot just a few weeks ago, things are all of sudden looking a lot more grand for “Budapest Hotel.”
“Pride” sneaks into the Best Picture – Comedy/Musical lineup.
A few days after it beat Oscar favorites like “The Imitation Game” at the British Independent Film Awards, Matthew Warchus’s gay rights saga “Pride” got some more surprising awards season love by beating out “Begin Again,” “Top Five” “Inherent Vice” and “Annie” (among others) in the Globes’ top Comedy/Musical category. It’s a lovely little film so we definitely aren’t complaining, and hopefully the exposure gets more people to check it out (it’s by far the lowest grossing of the films the Globes nominated for Best Picture that have already opened).
“Begin Again” and “The LEGO Movie” are shut out of Best Original Song.
The most shocking snubs overall probably came in the Best Original Song category, where assumed Oscar frontrunners “Lost Stars” (from “Begin Again”) and “Everything is Awesome” (from “The LEGO Movie”) both missed out in favor of songs from none other than Lana Del Ray (“Big Eyes” from “Big Eyes”), Sia (“Opportunity” from “Annie”), John Legend and Common (“Glory” from “Selma”), Lorde (“Yellow Flicker Beat” from “The Hunger Games”) and Patti Smith (“Mercy Is” from “Noah”). That’s a pretty amazing quintet of singers, “LEGO” and “Begin Again” snubs aside. And it should be mentioned that last year the Globes’ somehow snubbed Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” and it ended up getting an Oscar nod anyway. 
Double the Julianne Moore.
Focus ended up giving David Cronenberg’s “Maps To The Stars” a last minute qualifying run, and it definitely paid off at the Globes. The Hollywood satire helped give Julianne Moore two nominations for her banner year, with a mention for “Maps” in the Comedy/Musical Actress category alongside an assumed nod for “Still Alice” on the Drama side. This is actually the second time Moore has landed two Globe nominations in one year — she did the same in 1999 for “An Ideal Husband” and “The End of the Affair.” The difference this time around is that she’s almost certainly winning one of them.
The Foreign Film category.
Canada’s “Mommy,” Belgium’s “Two Days, One Night,” Argentina’s “Wild Tales” and Turkey’s “Winter Sleep” were among the many favorites that didn’t make the Globes’ cut for Best Foreign Film. The most unexpected film to get in was Estonia’s “Tangerines” — which absolutely no one saw coming. The Globes usually only have two or three films cross over to Oscar in this category, though the winners have lined up four years running (“In a Better World,” “A Separation,” “Amour” and “The Great Beauty”). Which is good news for Russia’s “Leviathan,” Poland’s “Ida” and Sweden’s “Force Majeure” — arguably the three frontrunners for the win both here and at the Oscars.
Quvenzhané Wallis gets in for “Annie.”
The Golden Globes snubbed “Beasts of the Southern Wild” a few years back, but now Quvenzhané Wallis can call herself a Golden Globe nominee anyway. She got nominated in the Comedy/Musical Actress category alongside the likes of Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Helen Mirren and Julianne Moore for the as-yet-unreleased “Annie,” which also scored a Best Original Song nomination. Surprisingly, that gives “Annie” more nominations than “Unbroken,” “American Sniper,” “Fury” and “Interstellar” combined.
“Interstellar” gets nominated — just for Best Original Score.
Of those four films, “Interstellar” was the only one to get a nomination, but it was a singular (and deserved) one for Hans Zimmer’s score. It’s probably almost safe to say the film’s Best Picture Oscar chances have entirely faded, given that the Globes have been kinder to him than the Academy in the past.
READ MORE: Full List of Golden Globe Film Nominations
Peter Knegt is Indiewire’s Contributing Editor and awards columnist. Follow him on Twitter.
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