'Emilia Perez' leads Golden Globe nominations with 10, followed by 'The Brutalist' and 'Conclave'

Jacques Audiard's audacious musical "Emilia Perez," about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirming surgery to become a woman, led nominations to the 82nd Golden Globes on Monday, scoring 10 nods to lead it over other contenders like the musical smash "Wicked," the papal thriller "Conclave" and the postwar epic "The Brutalist."

The nominations for the Globes, which will be televised by CBS and streamed on Paramount+ on Jan. 5, were announced on Monday morning by Mindy Kaling and Morris Chestnut.

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The embattled Globes, which are no longer presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are still in comeback mode after years of scandal and organizational upheaval. Working in the Globes favor this year: a especially starry field of nominees. Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Denzel Washington, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Glen Powell and Selena Gomez all scored nominations.

The young Donald Trump drama “The Apprentice” also landed nominations for its two central performances, by Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. The president elect has called “The Apprentice” a “politically disgusting hatchet job" made by "human scum.”

How much the recent president election will figure into Hollywood's awards season remains to be seen. In the season's first awards ceremony, the Gotham Awards, Trump went unmentioned but sometimes alluded to. Stan also received a nomination Monday for the dark comedy “A Different Man.”

While “Oppenheimer” and, to a lesser degree, “Barbie,” sailed into the Globes nominations as the clear heavyweights of awards season, no such frontrunner has emerged this year — and, with the exception of “Wicked," most of the contenders are far lighter on box office. The Globes don’t often align with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a much larger group that far more closely reflects the film industry. But they can give movies a major boost, and ripe fodder for their awards marketing.

Netflix dominates

Netflix, which acquired “Emilia Pérez” after its Cannes Film Festival debut, dominated the nominations, leading all studios in both film nods (13) and in the TV categories (23).

“Emilia Pérez," an operatic genre-skipping movie that combines elements of a narco thriller, a Broadway musical and a trans drama, scored nominations for its three stars: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña and Gomez. No comedy or musical has ever received more Globe nominations.

Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” landed seven nominations, including best picture, drama, and acting nods for Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce. The soon-to-be-released film, from A24, is uncommonly ambitious, with a runtime of three-and-a-half hours, including an intermission.

A24 narrowly trailed Netflix in the film categories, scoring 12 nominations overall, including best actor, drama, for Hugh Grant's darkest turn yet in the horror film “Heretic.” Grant, in a statement, thanked the directors, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods “for spotting my need to kill."

Close behind it was Edward Berger’s “Conclave,” starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal tasked with leading the conclave to elect a new pope. It landed six nominations, including best picture, drama, and acting nods for Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini.

Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning “Anora,” starring Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, was nominated for five awards, including best picture, comedy or musical, and best female actor for Madison and best supporting actor for Yura Borisov.

The Globes will be hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser, who scored her own nomination for best stand-up special. CBS, which began airing the Globes last year on a new deal, will hope Glaser manages to do better than last year’s emcee, Jo Koy, whose stint was widely panned.

Who are this year's top Globes nominees?

The nominees for best motion picture drama are: "The Brutalist"; "A Complete Unknown,"; "Conclave"; "Dune: Part Two"; "Nickel Boys;" "September 5."

The nominees for best film musical or comedy are: "Wicked"; "Anora"; "Emilia Perez"; "Challengers"; "A Real Pain"; "The Substance."

What stood out?

Coralie Fargeat's gory body horror satire “The Substance," starring Demi Moore as an actress who resorts to extremes to stay young in a Hollywood obsessed with young beauty, landed five nominations overall, including nods for both Moore and her younger doppelganger, Margaret Qualley.

Among animated movies, DreamWorks' “The Wild Robot” also had an especially good day. The tale of the shipwrecked robot came away with four nominations, including one for cinematic and box office achievement, a relatively new category populated by big ticket-sellers like “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Inside Out 2.” The strong showing suggests the other animated nominees — “Flow,” “Inside Out 2," “Memoir of a Snail," “Moana 2," “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” — may have a hard time besting “The Wild Robot.”

The Bob Dylan film “A Complete Unknown," starring Chalamet, also had a lot to celebrate. Coming off an endorsement from Dylan, himself, the film landed nominations for Chalamet, Edward Norton (who plays Woody Guthrie) and best picture, drama.

Pamela Anderson also landed her first Golden Globe nomination. In “The Last Showgirl,” Anderson plays an aging Las Vegas showgirl, a performance that's led to the best reviews of Anderson's career. She was nominated for best female actor, drama, alongside Jolie ("Maria"), Nicole Kidman ("Babygirl"), Tilda Swinton ("The Room Next Door"), Fernanda Torres ("I'm Still Here") and — in a surprise — Kate Winslet ("Lee").

Anderson, reached by video conference Monday, said she put her whole life into the film.

“I was making pickles and jam. I didn’t think I’d be doing any more in this industry,” said Anderson. “I was a little disappointed in myself and was kind of reassessing some of my life choices. But then this came up.”

How about the TV categories?

"The Bear," which dominated the 2024 Globes, led all series with five nominations for its third season. That included nods for Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Liza Colon-Zayas and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Its stiffest competition this year might come in the FX series "Shogun" (four nominations, including acting nods for Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada) or Apple TV's "Slow Horses" (nods for Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden).

"Only Murders in the Building" again led the comedy or musical category, with nominations for it stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Gomez, her second nomination to go with hers for "Emilia Perez."

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What's the deal with the Golden Globes, anyway?

The Globes aren't ever quite drama-free, but things have settled down for the embattled awards body. After The Los Angeles Times reported that the HFPA voters included no Black members, among other issues, most of Hollywood boycotted the show and the 2022 ceremony was scrapped.

Last January's Globes were the first after the disbanding of the HFPA and their acquisition by Dick Clark Productions and billionaire Todd Boehly's private equity firm Eldridge Industries. However, earlier this fall, the Ankler reported that former members of the HFPA filed a letter with the California attorney general's office questioning "the validity of the purchase."

Though the 2024 Globes were mostly panned, ratings improved. According to Nielsen, some 9.5 million watched, leading CBS to give the show a five-year deal.

What's new this year?

Last year, the Globes introduced two new categories that remain this time around: the cinematic and box office achievement award and the best performance in stand-up comedy on television. One tweak this time comes in the lifetime achievement awards. This year, those are going to Ted Danson (for the Carol Burnett Award) and Viola Davis (for the Cecil B. DeMille Award). Those will be handed out in a gala dinner on Friday, Jan. 3, two days before the Globes.