2023 Golden Globes: ‘Avatar,’ ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Elvis’ and ‘The Crown’ Land Nominations

Globe Nominations

Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in 'Top Gun: Maverick.' The film earned two Golden Globe nominations, including for Best Motion Picture — Drama.Photo: Courtesy of EPK

Avatar: The Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis were nominated for Best Motion Picture, Drama at the Golden Globe awards next month, when the ceremony returns to television after a year off following a diversity and ethics scandal.

The Banshees of Inisherin, a nominee for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, led all movies with eight nominations on Monday from members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that hands out the Globes and announces the nominations.

The Avatar and Top Gun sequels will face off against Elvis, Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans, and Tar, the story of a manipulative conductor, for the top prize of best drama film.

 

Back to the 50s
Austin Butler as Elvis in the biopic, Elvis, which will face off against Avatar, Top Gun, The Fablemans and Tar for the top prize of best drama film. Photo: Entertainment Pictures/Alamy Stock Photo

 

Banshees, a dark comedy about a man trying to repair a friendship, will compete with Everything Everywhere All at Once, Babylon, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and Triangle of Sadness.

The Golden Globes have been known as a star-studded, booze-fuelled ceremony that kicks off Hollywood’s awards season and helps propel nominees and winners in their quest for Oscars.

But they were tainted after a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation probed the association’s practices and revealed the organization had no Black members. Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globe statues in protest, and longtime broadcaster NBC dropped the 2022 telecast.

 

Tom Cruise as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick. In 2021, Cruise returned his three Golden Globe statues in protest of the findings that revealed the Golden Globe Association had no Black members. Photo: Scott Garfield. © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

The Comcast-owned network agreed to air the Golden Globes again in 2023 after the organization made reforms. The ceremony will take place Jan. 10 and will also stream on Peacock.

It is unclear, though, if the event will attract the parade of A-list stars that it has in the past. Few nominees commented on Monday.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama contenders include Austin Butler for his portrayal of rock music legend Elvis Presley, Daniel Craig for Glass Onion, Colin Farrell for Banshees, and Canadian Brendan Fraser for The Whale.

Cate Blanchett was nominated for best drama actress for the lead role in Tar alongside Viola Davis in The Woman King, and Ana de Armas for playing Marilyn Monroe in Blonde.

 

The Woman King
Viola Davis in The Woman King. Photo: Courtesy of TIFF

 

Top Gun: Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer said he was “overjoyed to share this nomination with Paramount, Tom and the entire cast and crew.”

Paramount Global distributed Maverick, the highest-grossing movie of 2022. A spokesperson for Cruise did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In television categories, comedy Abbott Elementary scored eight nominations, followed by Royal Family drama The Crown.

Searchlight Pictures, owned by Walt Disney Co., led all movie distributors with 12 nominations. In TV categories, Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max and Netflix Inc. tied with 14 nods each.