Golden Globes 2020: Most egregious snubs and surprises

Look, we don't always agree on everything. But some things are certainty, and we're certain Golden Globes voters are drunk.

You’ve got to give it to the Golden Globes – you can always count on them to get you riled up.

Every year, we wonder what strange choices the fewer than 100 mercurial members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will choose to honour. Will this be another year of The Tourist?

Not quite. But I still have to ask, “Dear Golden Globes, are you drunk?”.

OK, Netflix cleaned up big in the Golden Globe nomination game with three out of the five Best Drama film categories – Marriage Story, The Irishman and The Two Popes. That’s quite a feat for a tech company whose movies the largest cinema chains around the world refuse to screen.

The other two were Joker and 1917.

Marriage Story is an incredible film and an absolute masterpiece – it should be nominated, ditto its acting nods for Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Laura Dern, and same for director Noah Baumbach for Best Screenplay.

Marriage Story and Netflix nominations aren't the drunk part.

Marriage Story is rare in its category for a glaring reason: It’s the only film with any significant female presence. It has, shock horror, a female lead character. The others don’t.

It’s perfectly fine that 1917 didn’t – Sam Mendes’ technical marvel took place in the trenches of World War I, not a lot of women there. Whatever.

But look across the board at all the main film categories, in Best Drama, Best Comedy or Musical, Screenplay and Director. It’s a testosterone fest.

Not one of the nominated films in the two movie categories were directed by women. Not one of the Director nominees is a woman and not one of the Screenplay nominees is a woman.

This coming from an awards body that was actually trolled on stage by one of its own presenters – Natalie Portman – in 2018 for featuring an all-male Director category.

Joaquin Phoenix is a deserving nominee, Todd Phillips really isn't

And yet here we are again.

In a year when Greta Gerwig made one of the best, most finely tuned and affecting films, Little Women (out January 1 in Australia). In a year when Lulu Wang told the personal story of her grandmother’s illness in The Farewell (which was at least acknowledged in Best Foreign Language Film). In a year when Marielle Heller made grown-ups cry in A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood.

Instead, the Golden Globes, in all of its wisdom, nominated Todd Phillips for Joker. A man who said you can’t do comedy anymore in 2019 (tell that Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Todd), a man who thought using slow-motion 37 times made his movie artful.

Yeah, OK.

So, again I ask, “Dear, Golden Globes, are you drunk?”.

Except for Saoirse Ronan, Little Women has shut-out

Maybe at some point in time, Greta Gerwig refused a selfie with HFPA member. Those HFPA guys really like celebrity selfies.

Meanwhile, Robert De Niro also got shut-out of the Best Actor Drama race for The Irishman despite being an Oscar frontrunner. Maybe HFPA are still miffed over De Niro’s jokes at their expense in 2011.

“We are all in this together – the filmmakers who make the movies and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association members who in turn, pose for pictures with the movie stars,” De Niro said at the time.

And where was Lupito Nyong’o, who won the New York Film Critics’ award last week for Us?

How do you not nominate Jeremy Strong?!

On the TV side, things were even wackier.

When They See Us, Ava Duvernay’s Netflix miniseries about the Central Park Five, which was well awarded at the far more prestigious Emmy Awards, was shut-out completely.

Natasha Lyonne’s highly acclaimed Russian Doll didn’t get a look in except in Best Actress Comedy. Obviously HFPA thought Ryan Murphy’s wildly uneven The Politician should make the cut instead.

Perhaps the most egregious snub on the TV side is that Jeremy Strong’s multilayered, vulnerable and oftentimes quiet performance on Succession was totally forgotten.

Instead, Kit Harington, who was required to emote for at least one scene in the final season of Game of Thrones, managed to squeeze in.

Oh boy.

Maybe when Todd Phillips gets around to making The Hangover 4, the Golden Globes can nominate that too.

Share your movies and TV obsessions | @wenleima