5 Globes Takeaways: ‘Wicked’ Woes, Neon Lights & Netflix Mysteries
Plus: Nicholas Britell on ‘Jay Kelly’
Happy Monday to you all, but maybe less happy to Ben Shapiro, whose campaign to be nominated for the first-ever Golden Globe for podcasting has turned out exactly how everyone thought it would: being snubbed in favor of celebrities like Dax Shepard and Amy Poehler.
I covered the Golden Globes nominations live on Substack along with my colleague Christopher Rosen this morning, and you’ll be able to listen to a replay of our conversation on the Prestige Junkie podcast later today, in addition to an interview with one of today’s nominees, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere star Jeremy Allen White. And though I’m handing most of today’s newsletter over to Chris — who’s sharing his conversation with Jay Kelly composer Nicholas Britell — I’ll first share my five big takeaways from this morning’s nominations.
Globes Noms: 5 Takeaways
There’s some of the old Golden Globes kookiness in these nods — congratulations, eight-time nominee Emily Blunt, cited today for The Smashing Machine; you are still their favorite! — but also a lot of falling in line with the conventional wisdom about where awards season stands. Given that many, many Oscar voters haven’t even gotten to their screeners yet, there is also plenty of time for that to change.
1. Wicked: For Good may have serious catching up to do
Yes, there’s the eternal caveat that there’s no overlap between Globes and Academy voters, and therefore these nominations aren’t necessarily predictive of anything at all. And yet… if any group was likely to go hard for the Wicked sequel, it might have been the Golden Globes voters, who, even after years of membership overhauls, still love spectacle and celebrity more than the average awards voter.
They are, after all, the group that added a cinematic and box office achievement category a few years ago to make room for more blockbusters like Barbie and the first Wicked, both of which won the made-up honor. Wicked: For Good is included in that lineup but missed out on what ought to have been a layup nomination in the best musical or comedy category. Sure, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande made it in their respective categories, and the film’s two original song nominations pad the overall Wicked: For Good tally — with five nominations, it has one more than Wicked received last year. But with the box office looking softer than expected, some harsh reviews and a more competitive awards season in general than what the first Wicked faced, the sequel’s best picture nomination might be melting away.
2. Neon’s domination is as strong as ever
I’ll dig deep into this year’s international feature race with my pal Chris Feil on the Prestige Junkie After Party feed this Friday — subscribe now and don’t miss it! For now, though, it’s pretty evident that Neon will be the big winner of this race, almost no matter what, with five of the six nominees for the Globes' best international feature category. (The only non-Neon title nominated is the Tunisian drama The Voice of Hind Rajab, from the distributor Willa.)
As Chris and I discuss on the podcast, not only is Neon, fresh off its best picture win for Anora, looking strong in the international feature Oscar category — it’s also ready to dominate the main best picture field. Neon can get three international features — It Was Just an Accident, Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent — into that lineup at the Oscars, a rare feat not accomplished by a single distributor since Lionsgate did it in 2017 with Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water (a distribution deal between Lionsgate and CBS Films) and La La Land. Since winning the Palme d’Or in May, It Was Just an Accident has felt like the strongest contender of that bunch, and today’s Globes nominations for director and screenplay for Jafar Panahi only continue the momentum he built last week. Panahi and Sentimental Value director Joachim Trier both made it into the director category at the Globes. Still, given The Secret Agent’s nomination for best picture drama as well as the nomination for star Wagner Moura, it’s probably time to start wondering if director Kleber Mendonça Filho might be a real threat for an Oscar best director nomination. The same goes for No Other Choice, which landed in the best picture comedy category and got an extremely well-deserved nod for star Lee Byung-hun. The Academy’s directors’ branch, which decides the nominees, is famously international and prone to picking surprises, and both Filho and No Other Choice filmmaker Park Chan-wook are revered international auteurs primed for their big Oscar breakthrough.
Though Neon’s fifth international contender, Sirāt, didn’t land in a picture category, its additional nomination for Kangding Ray’s haunting score is a real flex. It makes me wonder if that somewhat soft field might be primed for a surprise.
Ever since Neon went on its acquisitions spree at Cannes, I’ve been wondering if it can pull off the unprecedented feat of backing all five Oscar nominees for best international feature. Next week’s shortlists might derail that plan if one of these movies misses (I’d be surprised if that happened, however). Still, these Globes noms are the best evidence yet that Neon could really pull it off: With 21 nominations, it led all distributors.
3. Netflix remains a big mystery
Has Netflix been in the news lately? While the streaming giant makes its play for Warner Bros. — my colleagues here on The Ankler have that covered top to bottom — its morning at the Golden Globes was suspiciously quiet. The only Netflix releases to score best picture nominations today were Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, an expected contender, and… Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, an outcome I don’t think anyone would have predicted.
On the acting front, it was great to see Train Dreams star Joel Edgerton get into best drama actor (and while my beloved movie missed a best picture nomination — a potential sign of trouble — I thought landing a nomination for best song for the Nick Cave track that ends the film was a pleasant surprise). Jay Kelly is hanging in there, too — with nominations for both George Clooney and Adam Sandler — but the puzzling snub for best picture musical or comedy is a shot to its Oscar hopes. (The fact that Netflix snuck KPop Demon Hunters into the cinematic and box office achievement category, despite that film’s minimal theatrical release, is simply further evidence of what a dominating force the animated movie is; congratulations in advance on its Globes wins in best original song and best animated feature.)
RIP to my prediction that A House of Dynamite would be a shock best picture drama nominee, but otherwise Netflix’s contenders remain more or less where they’ve been for weeks: all over the place. I think it’s fair to assume that Frankenstein will be the nomination leader of Netflix’s films at the Oscars, given its presumed strength in the crafts categories. However, I still don’t know if the film’s star Jacob Elordi can make it through in the supporting actor category — he could knock Sandler out, Sandler could knock him out, or somehow maybe they both make it in? Jay Kelly had a good week last week, and missing out on the top Globes category could be an aberration… or could be a sign that it’s just not competitive enough to stick around in the best picture race. It’s tough to know!
4. Searchlight needs to go all in on The Testament of Ann Lee
I can’t say I was shocked Rental Family and Is This Thing On? were snubbed in this morning’s nominations, since both have been barely hanging around the fringes of this year’s competition. But despite plenty of affection for both films — I’m a real fan of Is This Thing On? in particular — neither seems to have caught on the way they needed to, and barring a surprise Screen Actors Guild Actor Award nominations for Brendan Fraser or Laura Dern (both would be deserved!), their awards season paths may be complete.
That means for Searchlight Pictures, it all could come down to The Testament of Ann Lee, which earned a lead actress nomination today for Amanda Seyfried and doesn’t open in theaters until Christmas Day — which could make it the kind of late-breaking contender that comes to shake up the Oscar race each year. (Marty Supreme may very well do the same, mark my words!) Searchlight pulled this off very recently, making A Complete Unknown one of the last films to launch during last year’s awards season and pushing it toward eight Oscar nominations, including a total shocker supporting actress nomination for Monica Barbaro. The Testament of Ann Lee is a very, very different movie — it’s a dramatic musical about the founder of the Shakers movement from Mona Fastvold — but now has the full might of Searchlight’s formidable awards team behind it. Go get ’em, Shakers!
5. There were TV nominations, too!
As usual, the Globes’ television nominations include a lot of the greatest hits from this year’s Emmy season, and I would fully expect Emmy winners The Studio, Adolescence, The Pitt and Severance to do well for themselves at January’s show. But it’s always fun to see which newer shows make the cut, suggesting they could be major Emmy contenders come next year as well.
It was an excellent morning for Apple’s Pluribus, which was the only new series to land in the top drama or comedy categories and got a nod for star Rhea Seehorn as well. Limited series made room for three fall premieres, with The Beast in Me, All Her Fault and The Girlfriend all scoring nominations; The Beast in Me seems to be at the head of that pack, with acting nods for stars Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys as well. The best actress in a limited series category might be the most fun to watch, with last year’s Emmy winner Cristin Milioti no longer in the running and Danes up against heavy hitters like Michelle Williams (Dying for Sex), Robin Wright (The Girlfriend) and double nominee Seyfried (Long Bright River).
And finally, as I am obligated to mention Andor whenever possible, Diego Luna was once again recognized by the Globes for his magnificent work on the Star Wars series, even though the Emmys never caught on. Red carpet photographers, your mission is to capture his reunion with his co-star and Sentimental Value nominee Stellan Skarsgård. Please do not fail me!
Now, onto Chris’ conversation with the great Nicholas Britell.
Nicholas Britell on the Music of Jay Kelly
“All my memories are movies,” says Jay Kelly, a world-famous actor played by George Clooney in Noah Baumbach’s new movie, Jay Kelly.
The quote is commentary on a life devoted to the screen — and, depending on its context, can be something to celebrate (as happens when Jay is given a career tribute in Italy) or mourn (as when Jay talks with his estranged daughter, played in the movie by Riley Keough, whom he left behind to pursue stardom). But it’s also the driving force behind the production of Jay Kelly, including Baumbach’s first collaboration with composer Nicholas Britell.
“It’s a movie that asks philosophical questions,” Britell, 45, told me during a recent interview. “How do we choose to spend our time in our lives? Who do we choose to spend that time with? What is the role of art in our lives? What is the role of career in our lives? What does it take to achieve certain things, and are they worth it? So during our conversations about the score, Noah and I had a sense of this personal, sensitive, happy-sad mixture — but, hopefully, of it being a love letter to movies as well.”
Focused on its title character, Netflix’s Jay Kelly is a movie for movie-people (and, Netflix presumably hopes, those movie-people in the industry who vote on awards). The project, streaming now on Netflix and in select theaters, follows Jay at a crossroads in his life, as he tries to repair multiple frayed relationships, including with his daughter (Keogh), his father (Stacey Keach) and his manager (Adam Sandler). Through it all, Britell’s beautiful score — led by bold string arrangements and quiet piano notes — helps Baumbach hit the kind of earnest, sentimental notes the filmmaker has often left unexplored in his previous works (including Oscar-nominated movies The Squid and the Whale and Marriage Story).
“Noah and I felt that there was a romantic sound to how we think about movies,” Britell said. “Everyone has their own take on movies, but there’s something to me like when I think of why I love movies, there’s a feeling I get — and Noah and I aligned on that feeling very specifically.”
The New York-born composer has become something of a favorite among cinephiles since he first broke out in the 2010s, largely thanks to his collaborations with filmmakers Barry Jenkins (including the Oscar-nominated scores for Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk) and Adam McKay (multiple movies and television series, including the Oscar-nominated music for Don’t Look Up) and the Emmy Award-winning Succession. On Spotify, Britell receives roughly 2.2 million monthly listens, fewer than big-name composers like Ludwig Göransson (Sinners) and Hans Zimmer (F1), but more than Jonny Greenwood (One Battle After Another) and Volker Bertelmann (A House of Dynamite). One of his strengths is being selective with his collaborators, hence the repeat team-ups with Jenkins, McKay and Jesse Armstrong (Succession and Mountainhead).
With Baumbach, Britell told me, there was an immediate kinship, a shared love for movies. Baumbach, who has worked with multiple composers in recent years, including Randy Newman (Marriage Story) and Danny Elfman (White Noise), said he wanted the Jay Kelly score to feel like its own character.
“I was immediately excited by that idea,” Britell said, calling Baumbach “a fantastic partner” who had “such good instincts” on what he wanted. “But he was also open to new ideas, open to hearing all sorts of different possibilities for things, open to exploring unconventional things.”
An example: In establishing the inherent meta feeling of a movie where Clooney plays a movie star, Jay Kelly opens with Jay Kelly about to shoot his final scene on the set of a crime drama, as cinematographer Linus Sandgren’s (La La Land) camera swoops through the soundstage in an apparent unbroken take. “Initially, there was no music there,” Britell said of the sequence, which establishes the circus-like, “let’s put on a show” feeling of making movies. But then, while Britell was talking with Baumbach, they decided it might be fun to feature Britell’s orchestra tuning up.
“You can view that as the beginning of a scene, or you can realize that it’s the beginning of our movie, too, and inside the movie, it’s actually the beginning of Jay’s journey,” Britell said. “You’re hearing a recording of musicians practicing.”
He added, “It’s just a long way of saying that this is what I love about making movies — every movie, every scene, there’s something new and something you’ve never done before.” — Christopher Rosen
