The 2022 Golden Globes nominations were announced on Monday with Power Of The Dog and Belfast leading the pack with seven nominations apiece.
Kristen Stewart received a Best Actress nomination for her controversial role as Princess Diana in Spencer and will go up against Lady Gaga who also faced backlash for playing Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci. The ladies are joined by Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) and Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) in the Drama category.
The nominations come amid uncertainty to who will be attending the ceremony, after stars called for a boycott of the ceremony due to the lack of diversity on the HFPA panel after it was revealed there were no black members.
Ahead of announcing the nominations, HFPA President Helen Hoehne addressed the scandal, stating: ‘This has been a year of change and reflection worked tirelessly to be better. We also have 21 new members the largest and most diverse in our history.’
Congrats: The 2022 Golden Globes nominations were announced on Monday with western Power Of The Dog leading the pack with seven nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays ranch owner Phil BurbanK
Snoop Dogg then announced the nominees and raised a laugh from the audience when he accidentally mispronounced Ben Affleck’s name, referring to him as Ben Afflay.
The Power Of The Dog will go up against Belfast, CODA, Dune and King Richard in the Drama category and also earned nominations in the Best Screenplay and Score categories – as well as a Best Supporting Actor nod for Benedict Cumberbatch.
Benedict stars with Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee in the Netflix Western, playing a Montana rancher in the 1920s who seems determined to terrorise his sister-in-law’s son from a previous relationship after becoming enamoured of him.
The actor will go up against Mahershala Ali (Swan Song), Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos), Will Smith (King Richard) and Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth) in the Best Actor – Drama category.
Meanwhile, Belfast – directed by Kenneth Branagh – is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by the BAFTA winner’s early childhood growing up in Northern Ireland surrounded by a large extended family.
It is billed as ‘chronicling the life of a working class family and their young son’s childhood during the troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the late 1960s.’
Controversial: Kristen Stewart received a Best Actress nomination for her controversial role as Princess Diana in Spencer and will go up against Lady Gaga who also faced backlash for her role as Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci
Jamie Dornan and Catriona Balfe star in the film, and earned themselves nominations in the Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress in a Drama category, while Kenneth is up for Best Director.
Best Director for a Motion Picture will be between Kenneth, The Power of the Dog’s Jane Campion, Maggie Gyllenhaal for the Lost Daughter, Denis Villenevue for Dune and West Side Story’s Steven Spielberg.
While Kristen and Gaga both received Best Actress nods for Spencer and House Of Gucci, their respective films received no other nominations.
Spencer follows the breakdown of the royal’s high-profile, 15-year marriage to Prince Charles and takes place over three days during one of Diana’s final Christmases at the House of Windsor in their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England in 1991.
While the film received mainly positive reviews, royal experts branded the film ‘cruel’ and ‘unnecessarily gratuitous’, saying the movie strips the late princess of her ‘respect and dignity’.
Gaga also came under fire for her role as Patrizia Reggiani in House Of Gucci which follows the tale of the family’s scandal when Patrizia ordered a hit on fashion heir ex Maurizio Gucci, played by Adam Driver.
The Gucci family were not pleased with the film, saying in a statement that the portrayal ‘couldn’t be further from the truth’ and that they take issue with how members were painted ‘as thugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.’
Elsewhere in the film categories, Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay’s apocalypse satire, picked up four nominations, including Best Film – comedy or musical and Best Actor/Actress for Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence – despite the movie receiving mixed reviews from critics.
Also bagging four nominations were King Richard, in which Will Smith plays the father of Venus and Serena Williams and has been nominated for Best Actor, and Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story .
One to watch: Belfast – directed by Kenneth Branagh – is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by the BAFTA winner’s early childhood growing up in Northern Ireland and scored seven nominations (pictured: Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan)
In the Musical/Comedy film category Cyrano, Don’t Look Up, Licorice Pizza, Tick Tick Boom and West Side Story will battle it out.
Succession was the most nominated TV series with five mentions, with The Morning Show and Ted Lasso closely behind on four.
Succession follows The Logan family known for controlling the biggest media and entertainment company in the world. However, their world changes when their father steps down from the company.
Brian Cox, who plays Logan Roy, will battle it out against his on-screen son Jeremy Strong (Kendall) in the Best Actor Drama category, while Sarah Snook (Shiv) and Kieran Culkin (Roman) have nods in the Supporting categories.
The hit show will face Lupin, The Morning Show, Pose and Squid Game in the Best TV Series – Drama category.
NBC revealed in May that it would not air the 2022 Golden Globe awards in January, and criticism of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association reached such a pitch that Tom Cruise even returned his three awards.
The star won Best Actor at the Golden Globes for Jerry Maguire in 1997, Best Actor for Born on the Fourth of July in 1990 and Best Supporting Actor for his role in Magnolia in 2000.
Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson also led calls for a Golden Globes boycott, with Scarlett saying she had faced ‘sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment.’
She released a statement that read: ‘As an actor promoting a film, one is expected to participate in awards season by attending press conferences as well as awards shows.
‘In the past, this has often meant facing sexist questions and remarks by certain HFPA members that bordered on sexual harassment. It is the exact reason why I, for many years, refused to participate in their conferences.’
She continued: ‘Unless there is necessary fundamental reform within the organization, I believe it is time that we take a step back from the HFPA and focus on the importance and strength of unity within our unions and the industry as a whole’.
Leading the pack: Succession was the most nominated TV series with five mentions, with The Morning Show and Ted Lasso not far behind on four
The HFPA also came under fire after it was revealed that none of their 90 members were black.
The organization’s track record of overlooking black- and minority-led films and television series at the Golden Globes has also been frequently criticized.
Back in March, former president Philip Berk was expelled for forwarding an email dubbing Black Lives Matter a ‘hate movement,’ and two consultants hired to address the HFPA’s diversity issues quit over a lack of progress.
There were additional claims that the HFPA had not been inclusive enough to women or members of the LGBTQ community.
Netflix and Amazon Studios both said they would cut ties with the HFPA if it didn’t swiftly enact more drastic changes.
‘We don´t believe these proposed new policies – particularly around the size and speed of membership growth – will tackle the HFPA´s systemic diversity and inclusion challenges, or the lack of clear standards for how your members should operate,’ Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos wrote in a letter to the group.
WarnerMedia said it would cease holding screenings and other events for the HFPA until it made more substantial changes.
‘For far too long, demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry,’ WarnerMedia executives said in a letter. ‘We regret that as an industry, we have complained, but largely tolerated this behavior until now.’
In a statement, NBC said it believes the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is committed to reform. But the network said change can’t come quickly enough for next year’s Globes.
‘However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right,’ the network said. ‘As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes. Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023.’
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association didn’t address the 2022 telecast in responding to NBC’s decision, but board members of the group laid out its schedule of reforms – ultimately leading to a revamped membership and board by early August, as well as numerous other policy changes.
‘Regardless of the next air date of the Golden Globes, implementing transformational changes as quickly – and as thoughtfully – as possible remains the top priority for our organization,’ the group said in a statement.
‘We invite our partners in the industry to the table to work with us on the systemic reform that is long overdue, both in our organization as well as within the industry at large.’
The press association then ratified plans to add at least 20 new members this year ‘with a specific focus on recruiting Black members’ and with a goal of increasing membership 50% over the next 18 months.
This year, the 78th Golden Globes ceremony was a ratings disaster, with viewership down 63 percent from 2020 and hitting an all-time low.
The 79th Golden Globe Awards are scheduled to take place on January 9, 2022