Golden Globes 2020: Biggest snubs and surprises - Los Angeles Times
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The biggest snubs and surprises from the 2020 Golden Globe nominations

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No Golden Globe nominations day would be complete without at least a few snubs and surprises.

The 2020 list — announced by Tim Allen, Dakota Fanning and Susan Kelechi Watson on Monday — unexpectedly includes Hulu limited series “Catch-22” and Netflix comedy series “The Politician” yet ignores “When They See Us” and “Veep.” (The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. often makes at least some head-scratching selections, and these peculiar choices were largely unpredicted.)

The Times breaks down all of those entrants that surprisingly will, and shockingly won’t, be up for the film and television awards at the ceremony, set to take place Jan. 5 at the Beverly Hilton:

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Despite a banner year for female directors, this year’s Golden Globe nominations for best director are male-driven, as usual.

Dec. 9, 2019

Surprise: In the run-up to Monday morning’s Golden Globe nominations, it wasn’t exactly clear which way the awards season winds were blowing for “Joker.” In the end, it came out with four Golden Globe nominations, including best motion picture in the drama category, best director for Todd Phillips, best lead actor in a drama for Joaquin Phoenix and best score.

Snub: Greta Gerwig, writer and director of the latest adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women,” did not receive any nominations. Unlike Gerwig’s 2017 film, “Lady Bird,” which earned four nods from the HFPA, “Little Women” was recognized solely for its lead performance from Saoirse Ronan, who plays Jo March in the movie.

Surprise: Annette Bening has long been a favorite at the Golden Globes, having won twice and earning six other nominations going all the way back to “Bugsy” in 1992, but it was still a surprise to see her land a nomination for best supporting actress for her role in “The Report.”

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Snub: Netflix’s French animated film “I Lost My Body,” a major award winner out of Cannes, had strong critical momentum — but was edged out of Globes contention in favor of a lineup dominated by more commercial studio heavy-hitters.

Surprise: Wait a second — was Disney’s “The Lion King” a live-action film or animated? Not even director Jon Favreau, who used live-action and VR techniques to create his photorealistic remake of the 1994 classic, was sure what to technically call it, making the animation nomination a bit of a surprise. Hakuna matata?

Surprise: Cate Blanchett scored a nomination for her performance in the comedy “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” a film that received lackluster reviews upon its release in August. Pundits were expecting that slot would go to Constance Wu for “Hustlers” or Kaitlyn Dever for “Booksmart.”

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Snub: Though the Globes recognized “The Irishman’s” director, Martin Scorsese, supporting actors Joe Pesci and Al Pacino and screenwriter Steve Zaillian, and nominated the film for best drama, somehow they overlooked Robert De Niro, who plays the lead role.

Surprise: Executive produced by George Clooney, “Catch-22,” the six-episode Hulu show based on Joseph Heller’s World War II novel, was not well-received when it debuted in May, but it nabbed two nominations on Monday morning, for Abbott’s performance as Yossarian and for limited series.

Snub: The HFPA almost completely forgot about the existence of a little show called “Game of Thrones,” giving it exactly one nomination for its eighth and final season — for actor Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow. Maybe Globes voters — who were slow to warm to the HBO fantasy — were, like thousands of fans, disappointed in the final season.

Surprise: “The Politician,” Ryan Murphy’s first Netflix series — which also nabbed a nomination for star Ben Platt — surprised for a number of reasons, not least because its nomination came in the comedy series category. The show, a satire on race, class and American political culture, overcame mixed reviews to grab Globe nominations, which reflect the HFPA’s love of Murphy, previously nominated five times.

Snub: The final season of “Veep” fared even worse than fellow HBO series “Game of Thrones,” scoring zero nominations. The caustic satire of American politics has never been as popular with members of the HFPA as it has been with Emmy voters, who showered it with 17 Emmys and a record six consecutive wins for star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The comedy, in which she played a cynical vice president, hasn’t won a single Golden Globe.

Surprise: Ramy Youssef’s breakout comedy, “Ramy,” made waves with its incisively funny portrait of modern life — Muslim and otherwise — when it debuted on Hulu this spring, but his nomination for comedy actor was far from a lock with Emmy nominees Ted Danson (“The Good Place”) and Eugene Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”) in the running.

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Snub: Director Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” scored nominations for best drama and screenplay and stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver but missed out in the director category.

Snub: The ’80s-set sci-fi title “Stranger Things” previously got nominations love from the Globes, not only in the series category but also for performances by Winona Ryder and David Harbour. But the third season from the Netflix title, released in July, went unmentioned in all categories.

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