As expected, there was a significant Irish presence when the nominees for the 73rd Golden Globes, erratic pointer to the Oscars, were announced on Thursday morning.
Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, co-produced by Element Pictures and The Irish Film Board, picked up three nominations including best drama picture.
Dubliner Emma Donoghue is shortlisted in the best screenplay race for adapting her popular novel.
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Brie Larson, who stars as a mother cruelly imprisoned with her young son, looks like ante-post favourite in the best drama actress category, but she will face stiff competition from Saoirse Ronan, nominated for the charming Brooklyn.
That Irish film did not perhaps fare quite so well as the producers may have hoped.
Ronan was the only nominee attached to the adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel and it is hard to resist the suspicion that Room may have edged Brooklyn out of best screenplay and best drama picture.
Michael Fassbender, proud Kerryman, was nominated as best drama actor for his performance as the ill-tempered protagonist in Steve Jobs, but he will need wind in his sails to get past Leonardo DiCaprio’s searing turn as a vengeful frontiersman in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant.
Todd Haynes’s Carol, a lesbian romance set in 1950s New York, led the nominations table with five mentions.
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, stars of the film, will compete against each other in an unusually competitive best drama actress race.
The biggest surprise from this year’s Golden Globes -- as ever, organised by the eccentric Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- is the unexpectedly strong showing of Adam McKay’s The Big Short.
Few would have predicted that the heightened study of the 2008 financial crisis would end up in second place on the nominations table with four mentions. The Revenant, a gut-wrenching survival tale, and Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle’s clever take on the Apple co-founder, also received four nominations. George Miller’s Mad Max Fury Road, a mainstream blockbuster that has been receiving rare love from high-brow critics, broke secured impressive nominations for best drama picture and best director.
The legend that the Golden Globes offer reliable predictions to the Oscars should not be taken too seriously.
Most of the projects nominated in the Globes’ best comedy film category will stand no chance with the Academy and, with a maximum of 10 films nominated for best picture Oscar, Brooklyn should still secure a starting spot in the race that really matters.
Decided by an electorate of around 90 entertainment journalists, the Globes have attracted occasional criticism for their peculiar selections, but, hosted in recent years by Ricky Gervais and the partnership of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the ceremony itself has established a reputation for bibulous informality that contrasts favourably with the pompous, sprawling Oscar ceremony.
This year’s Globes, hosted by the irreverent Gervais, will take place on January 10th.
Full list of nominations:
BEST DRAMA
“Carol”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Revenant”
“Room”
“Spotlight”
BEST COMEDY OR MUSICAL
“The Big Short”
“Joy”
“The Martian”
“Spy”
“Trainwreck”
BEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Bryan Cranston, “Trumbo”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”
Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”
Will Smith, “Concussion”
BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Cate Blanchett, “Carol”
Brie Larson, “Room”
Rooney Mara, “Carol”
Saoirse Ronan, “Brooklyn”
Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”
BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Christian Bale, “The Big Short”
Steve Carell, “The Big Short”
Matt Damon, “The Martian”
Al Pacino, “Danny Collins”
Mark Ruffalo, “Infinitely Polar Bear”
BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jennifer Lawrence, “Joy”
Melissa McCarthy, “Spy”
Amy Schumer, “Trainwreck”
Maggie Smith, “The Lady in the Van”
Lily Tomlin, “Grandma”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Paul Dano, “Love & Mercy”
Idris Elba, “Beasts of No Nation”
Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”
Michael Shannon, “99 Homes”
Sylvester Stallone, “Creed”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jane Fonda, “Youth”
Jennifer Jason Leigh, “The Hateful Eight”
Helen Mirren, “Trumbo”
Alicia Vikander, “Ex Machina”
Kate Winslet, “Steve Jobs”
BEST DIRECTOR
Todd Haynes, “Carol”
Alejandro Inarritu, “The Revenant”
Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”
George Miller, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Ridley Scott, “The Martian”
Agencies
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