Golden Globes 2021 Nominations: ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘The Crown’ Reign Supreme as Female Directors Finally Get Their Due

If reading about Golden Globes nominees in early February seems a bit strange, that’s because by early February the Globes are usually behind us, and we’re already in the thick of Oscar talk.

Thanks, however, to the COVID-19 pandemic, award season shifted a few months later this year in the hope of possibly pulling off in-person events — a reminder of before-times, with glittering A-listers walking red carpets and gushing thanks on the award show stage.

So instead of holding the 2021 Golden Globes in early January, as per usual, they’re taking place on Feb. 28. There is one tinge of familiarity to them, however, in these uncertain times — Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are returning to host the show, but will appear separately, socially-distanced on different coasts due to COVID-19.

And as for those stars who received Golden Globe nominations this year, the British Royal Family as well as the foursome you might call Canada’s royal family (of television at least) received multiple nods, with The Crown leading all television shows with six and Schitt’s Creek coming in second with five.
 

The Crown and Schitt’s Creek Rule the TV Landscape

 

The Crown — which contributed to Netflix’s 42 total nominations (which leads the overall pack this year) — nabbed a nomination for Best Television Series – Drama for its fourth season. As well, the Globes is pitting Queen Elizabeth against Diana, Princess of Wales, as Olivia Colman, 47, and Emma Corrin both vie for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama award. Meanwhile, Prince Charles actor Josh O’Connor is up for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama. Helena Bonham Carter, 54, as Princess Margaret, and Gillian Anderson, 52, who delivered a celebrated turn as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, are both contending for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Meanwhile, fresh off their historic Emmy’s sweep last year, the CBC comedy Schitt’s Creek continues its award season roll with nominations for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy; Catherine O’Hara, 66, for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy; Eugene Levy, 74, for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy; Dan Levy for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television; and Annie Murphy for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

As well, a pair of big-screen octogenarian legends are in the running for small-screen honours, with Canuck Donald Sutherland, 85 — this year’s oldest contending nominee — receiving a nod for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for The Undoing. As well, Al Pacino, 80, earned a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama for Hunters.

Two other Hollywood heavyweights — Nicole Kidman, 53, and Cate Blanchett, 51 — will duke it out in the category for Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, with Kidman being nominated for The Undoing and Blanchett for Mrs. America, while the men’s side of the same category is stacked with boomer stars including Bryan Cranston, 64 (Your Honor), Jeff Daniels, 65 (The Comey Rule), Hugh Grant, 60 (The Undoing), Mark Ruffalo, 53 (I Know This Much Is True) and Ethan Hawke, 50 (The Good Lord Bird).

And this year, legendary television producer Norman Lear, 98, will receive the Carol Burnett Award for “outstanding contributions to television on or off the screen” and “the lasting impact that their television career achievements have had on both the industry and audiences.”

 

Netflix Reigns Supreme As Female Directors Finally Get Their Due

 

Just as it did in the television category, the streaming service Netflix continues to shake up the award show landscape, outdoing its traditional studio rivals by producing some of the most recognized films of the year.

That list includes Mank — the black-and-white David Fincher-directed Old Hollywood look at the life of legendary Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. Though the film didn’t fully galvanize audiences — review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes shows the audience score for Mank at only 61 per cent favourable — it received 83 per cent favourability with critics. And given the Golden Globe Awards are voted on by journalists with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, it’s no surprise it did well in the nominations.

The tally for Mank includes nods for Best Motion Picture — Drama; Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama (Gary Oldman, 62, as Mank); Best Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Amanda Seyfried); Best Director (Fincher, 58); Best Original Score (Trent Reznor, 55, and Atticus Ross, 53); and a Best Screenplay nod for Fincher’s father, Jack Fincher, a screenwriter and former Life magazine San Francisco bureau chief who originally penned the script in the 1990s. The elder Fincher died in 2003 at age 72.

The Golden Globes also broke new ground in the Best Director category, with women outnumbering men for the first time in the award’s history.

Actress Regina King, 50, earned a nomination for her directorial debut One Night in Miami, about a fictional 1964 meeting between boxing champ Muhammad Ali, legendary civil rights activist Malcolm X, the “King of Soul” Sam Cooke and football great Jim Brown, based on the play by Kemp Powers.

The nomination makes King only the second African-American woman nominated for Best Director, after Ava DuVernay received a nod for Selma in 2014. She is joined this year in the Best Director category by Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) and British actress, author and director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman).

Before 2021, however, only five women had ever been nominated for a directing Golden Globe — DuVernay, Barbra Streisand for Yentl (1983), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003) and Kathryn Bigelow twice, for The Hurt Locker (2009) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Of that group, Streisand is the only woman to win the award.

This year, King, Zhao and Fennell also face competition in the Best Director category from Fincher for Mank and Aaron Sorkin, 59, for The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Meanwhile, Viola Davis, 55, is the first and only African-American to win the “Triple Crown of Acting” — an Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award. And in 2016 she won her first Golden Globe, for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for Fences. This year she’s aiming for her second Globe, this time in the Best Actress category, for playing the eponymous character in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

The film also stars late Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman, who died last August at the age of 43. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was released after his death, and Boseman received a nomination in the Best Actor category for it. And even if he doesn’t win, look for him to be honoured with other talents we’ve lost in the last year, including, most recently, Cicely Tyson and Cloris Leachman.

Early Oscar favourites also landed Golden Globe nominations, including Frances McDormand, 63, who plays a woman who lives in her van and travels across the American West working various jobs along the way in Nomadland. In fact, in 2020 Nomadland won both the Toronto International Film Festival’s coveted People’s Choice Award and Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion, becoming the first film to ever accomplish the feat.

Aside from its nominations for McDormand and Zhao, it also picked up nods for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Screenplay (Zhao).

As well, The Father — based on the play by Florian Zeller about a man who suffers hallucinations while confined to his apartment and battles dementia — also earned four nominations, including for Best Motion Picture – Drama; Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for Anthony Hopkins, 83; a second nomination for Olivia Colman, for Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture; and Best Screenplay for Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, 75.

In addition, Jane Fonda, 83, will be honoured for her body of work with the Cecil B. deMille Award.

 

The Snubs

 

As with every award show nominations, the list of those who were “snubbed” proves almost as intriguing as those who got nominated. This year’s Golden Globes, however, includes a list of major older stars who many felt deserved nominations but failed to get them.

That list starts with perhaps the safest award show bet most years, Meryl Streep. Many expected the 71-year-old to land an acting nomination for either/both the Ryan Murphy musical comedy The Prom or the Steven Soderbergh comedy-drama Let Them All Talk, but neither came to fruition. In fact, Let Them All Talk was completely shut out while The Prom received nods for Best Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for James Corden.

Then there’s screen legend Sophia Loren, 86, who starred in the Italian drama The Life Ahead, which nabbed a Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language nom but nothing for the actress, which would have marked her first Golden Globe acting nomination since 1994.

Meanwhile, Ellen Burstyn, 88, was favoured for a nod for her much talked about role in the Netflix film Pieces of a Woman, but the only nom the film got went to actress Vanessa Kirby in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

And actor Delroy Lindo, 68, was also shut out for his performance in the Spike Lee film Da 5 Bloods — which is the subject of an even bigger snub considering the film, a huge critical hit, didn’t receive one nomination. Chadwick Boseman also appeared in this film, as it was the last of his movies to be released in his lifetime.

Speaking of productions that didn’t receive nominations, period drama Bridgerton, which became a viral hit following its premiere in December, got zero nominations as well.

 

 

The Full List of 2021 Golden Globes Nominees

 

Read on for the entire list of 2021 Golden Globe nominees:

Best Motion Picture – Drama

The Father

Mank

Nomadland  

Promising Young Woman  

The Trial Of The Chicago 7

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Andra Day, The United States Vs. Billie Holiday

Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman

Frances Mcdormand, Nomadland

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal

Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Anthony Hopkins, The Father

Gary Oldman, Mank

Tahar Rahim, The Mauritanian

 

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm  

Hamilton

Music  

Palm Springs  

The Prom

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Kate Hudson, Music

Michelle Pfeiffer, French Exit

Rosamund Pike, I Care a Lot

Anya Taylor-Joy, Emma 

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

James Corden, The Prom

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton

Dev Patel, The Personal History of David Copperfield

Andy Samberg, Palm Springs

 

Best Motion Picture – Animated

The Croods: A New Age

Onward  

Over the Moon  

Soul

Wolfwalkers

 

Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language

Another Round (Denmark) 

La Llorona (Guatemala / France)

The Life Ahead (Italy) 

Minari (U.S.A.) 

Two of Us (France/U.S.A.)

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy

Olivia Colman, The Father

Jodie Foster, The Mauritanian

Amanda Seyfried, Mank

Helena Zengel, News of the World

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah

Jared Leto, The Little Things

Bill Murray, On the Rocks

Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami

 

Best Director – Motion Picture

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

David Fincher, Mank

Regina King, One Night in Miami

Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

 

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Jack Fincher, Mank

Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton, The Father

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

 

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

Alexandre Desplat, The Midnight Sky

Ludwig Göransson, Tenet

James Newton Howard, News of the World

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Mank

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste, Soul

 

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

“Fight for You” — Judas and the Black Messiah

Music by: H.E.R., Dernst Emile Ii

Lyrics by: H.E.R., Tiara Thomas

 

“Hear My Voice” — The Trial of the Chicago 7

Music by: Daniel Pemberton

Lyrics by: Daniel Pemberton, Celeste Waite

 

“Io Sì (Seen)” — The Life Ahead

Music by: Diane Warren

Lyrics by: Diane Warren, Laura Pausini, Niccolò Agliardi

 

“Speak Now” — One Night in Miami

Music by: Leslie Odom Jr., Sam Ashworth

Lyrics by: Leslie Odom Jr., Sam Ashworth

 

“Tigress & Tweed” — The United States Vs. Billie Holiday

Music by: Andra Day, Raphael Saadiq

Lyrics by: Andra Day, Raphael Saadiq

 

Best Television Series – Drama

The Crown

Lovecraft Country  

The Mandalorian  

Ozark  

Ratched

  

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama

Olivia Colman, The Crown

Jodie Comer, Killing Eve

Emma Corrin, The Crown

Laura Linney, Ozark

Sarah Paulson, Ratched

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama

Jason Bateman, Ozark

Josh O’Connor, The Crown

Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

Al Pacino, Hunters

Matthew Rhys, Perry Mason

 

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Emily in Paris

The Flight Attendant

The Great  

Schitt’s Creek

Ted Lasso

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Lily Collins, Emily in Paris

Kaley Cuoco, The Flight Attendant

Elle Fanning, The Great

Jane Lev, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Don Cheadle, Black Monday

Nicholas Hoult, The Great

Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek

Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso

Ramy Youssef, Ramy

 

Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Normal People

The Queen’s Gambit  

Small Axe  

The Undoing  

Unorthodox

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

Cate Blanchett, Mrs. America

Daisy Edgar-Jones, Normal People

Shira Haas, Unorthodox

Nicole Kidman, The Undoing

Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

Bryan Cranston, Your Honor

Jeff Daniels, The Comey Rule

Hugh Grant, The Undoing

Ethan Hawke, The Good Lord Bird

Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much Is True

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Supporting Role

Gillian Anderson, The Crown

Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown

Julia Garner, Ozark

Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek

Cynthia Nixon, Ratched

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Supporting Role

John Boyega, Small Axe

Brendan Gleeson, The Comey Rule

Daniel Levy, Schitt’s Creek

Jim Parsons, Hollywood

Donald Sutherland, The Undoing

RELATED:

Emmys 2020: Schitt’s Creek Completes Historic Awards Sweep; Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy Win First Acting Honours

Bridgerton TV Series, Based on the Julia Quinn Books, A Huge Hit for Netflix

From Donald Sutherland on The Undoing To Christopher Plummer and Kim Cattrall, the Small Screen Resurgence of Older Canadian Stars