Chronicle Editor
Los Angeles. – The Golden Globe nominations contained few real surprises and in many ways have confirmed, rather than changed the direction of this year’s film awards race, which will culminate with the Oscars in February.
Since it opened the Venice Film Festival in August, “La La Land” has been seen as the frontrunner for best film and best director at the Academy Awards, with its main rivals remaining “Moonlight” and “Manchester by the Sea”.
Although the Golden Globes offers twice as many lead acting categories as the Baftas or the Oscars, today has done little to change the perception that Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”) and Emma Stone (“La La Land”) remain the favourites for the best actor and best actress Academy Awards.
Perhaps most notable is the performance of “Moonlight”, with just one nomination fewer than “La La Land”.
The Miami-set story of a young black man dealing with his sexuality now looks like the leading film to help end the race controversy of the last two years, with Mahershala Ali heavily tipped to win best supporting actor.
And while “Fences” performed less strongly overall, Viola Davis is also thought likely to win best supporting actress.
A welcome sign that after two years of #OscarsSoWhite, next year’s Academy Awards nominations are likely to be more diverse – and on top of that the favourites to win in two of the acting categories are black.
Olivia Colman faces fellow Brit Thandie Newton (Westworld) for best supporting actress in a limited TV series, as well as “Game of Thrones” star Lena Heady plus Chrissy Metz and Mandy Moore, who are both recognised for family comedy drama “This Is Us”.
“The Night Of’s” British star Riz Ahmed is nominated alongside Hiddleston for best actor in a limited TV series. They are up against Bryan Cranston for “All the Way”, John Turturro for “for The Night Of” and Courtney B Vance for “American Crime Story: OJ Simpson v The People”.
“American Crime Story: OJ Simpson v The People” is also recognised, with acting nominations for John Travolta, Sterling K Brown and Sarah Paulson alongside Vance. The drama is also up for best limited series.
In the movie categories, Disney’s “Zootopia” and “Moana” are among those up for best animated feature film, alongside “Kubo and the Strings”, “My Life as A Zucchini” and “Sing”.
“Florence Foster Jenkins”, based on the true story of a New York heiress who dreams of being an opera star, has four nominations, including a 30th Golden Globe nod for Meryl Streep and one for Hugh Grant.
It is also up for best comedy or musical film alongside “La La Land”, “20th Century Woman”, “Deadpool” and Irish film “Sing Street”, which was written and directed by once film-maker John Carney – BBC.
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