Golden Globes 2021 Picks

Once again the 2021 Golden Globe nominations show just how skewed (and subject to schmoozing and boozing) these awards are. Between the exclusion of Minari from Best Dramatic Film (no film eligible for Foreign Language film can qualify for Best Picture) and the inclusion of the ditzy Emily in Paris the Globes show no sign of updating their “awards can be bought” policy. 

While this year was bizarre in general when it came to content, there were many a show and film that came out that are noticeably absent from the Golden Globes that have been honored by almost every other awarding body. For more of that discussion you can listen to this episode of the We’re Watching What?! Podcast. 

2021 Golden Globes – FILM

Best Picture — Drama

There are several more deserving films missing from this category including First Cow and Minari. We’d even consider Sound of Metal or Soul over some of these. My assumption is that even though the HFPA has shown a complete lack of synchronicity with most of the other critics organizations or awards shows, they’ll still end up honoring Nomadland. There’s a small chance that because Mank is about old Hollywood (and the voters likely got wined and dined as part of the For Your Consideration campaign) it could eek out an upset. 

• The Father
• Mank
• Nomadland
• Promising Young Woman
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Picture — Comedy or Musical

The inclusion of Sia’s Music here show just how little effort went into considering films this year. Just because something is a musical shouldn’t automatically qualify it for this category, one would assume it should be GOOD as well. Palm Springs is a welcome addition here and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm seems like a logical choice. However Hamilton’s popularity (is it realllllyyyy a film or is it just a filmed performance?) could allow a win. We wouldn’t be as upset by that, as Hamilton itself is a masterpiece. However if The Prom wins we shall riot. 

• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
• Hamilton
• Music
• Palm Springs
• The Prom

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

Steven Yuen is painfully absent from this category for his role in Minari. Chadwick Boseman will likely win – though whether we should be honoring actors for their performances or their untimely passing is a different question. If there were stronger competitors last year we’d possibly have more objections to Boseman winning for this particular role. You can hear more of that discussion here. 

• Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
• Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• Anthony Hopkins, The Father
• Gary Oldman, Mank
• Tahar Rahim, The Mauritanian

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

While we think this category has a few of the more deserving performances (though we have to attest to not having seen Andra Day’s yet as the film wasn’t screened for all critics in advance and doesn’t come out until 2 days before the 2021 Golden Globes air). We’re assuming that Frances McDormand will win but wouldn’t be upset if Carey Mulligan took home the prize. 

• 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 — Musical or Comedy

James Corden’s nomination here is a blight to the rest of the nominees. His overly camp performance as a gay man in The Prom was tone deaf. Also as much as we like Dev Patel as an actor, The Personal History of David Copperfield was not his best work. 

Sacha Baron Cohen or Lin-Manuel Miranda would be fine winners. 

• 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 Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

This was not a good year for “musical” or “comedy.” Maria Bakalova without a doubt deserves to win, but will the Borat brand put off the HFPA? We also wouldn’t call I Care a Lot OR Emma a comedy, further proving the fact that the Golden Globes treat “Musical or Comedy” like a dumping ground.  

• 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 Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

While Baron Cohen certainly deserves his comedy nomination, this feels a smidge of a stretch. However Leto’s presence here is utterly unwarranted. The Little Things was an utter waste of time. Paul Raci from Sound of Metal seems to have been grossly overlooked in this category. Also if they’re insistent on honoring Chadwick Boseman somehow, a nod in this category for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods would have made more sense than Leto or even Murray. 

My hope is that Daniel Kaluuya’s excellent performance as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah shines through.

• 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 Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

The absence of Youn Yuh-Jung for Minari continues to show just how prejudiced and out of touch the Golden Globes are. She was not only the standout of that already excellent cast, but most in the industry have awarded her honors for this category. Yet to not even be nominated highlights how incapable the Hollywood FOREIGN Press Association seems to be of acknowledging that non-English speaking performances are on par with if not better than performances in English. 

While Glenn Close, Jodie Foster, and Amanda Seyfried are all good actresses in their own rights, the films they starred in were beyond lackluster. Ellen Burstyn for Pieces of a Woman or Olivia Cooke for Sound of Metal would have been better additions. As for young Helena Zengel, she did fine with what she had but we find the idea of rewarding a young white woman for a film, that at best appropriates Native American languages and at worst is outright racist, does not sit well with me. 

• Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
• Olivia Colman, The Father
• Jodie Foster, The Mauritanian
• Amanda Seyfried, Mank
• Helena Zengel, News of the World

Best Director — Motion Picture

If Regina King is such an excellent director why was her film shut out of several other categories? The incongruities continues. While we like much of Fincher’s work we don’t think Mank is deserving (but again that Hollywoooooddd thing). Noticeable absences include Kelly Reichardt for First Cow or hell even Pete Docter and Kemp Powers for Soul. Here’s hoping one of the ladies takes the trophy home. 

• 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

This suffers from the same issues as Best Director. Sorkin just tells the same structure over and over and over again. 

• Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
• Jack Fincher, Mank
• Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7
• Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, The Father
• Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

Best Motion Picture — Animated
While Wolfwalkers is a beautiful film, it doesn’t come close to the artistry and depth of the story of Soul. 

• The Croods: A New Age
• Onward
• Over the Moon
• Soul
• Wolfwalkers

Best Picture — Foreign Language

If you’d like to hear an explanation of how messed up this category is in terms of the bylaws go ahead and listen to our 2021 Golden Globes episode of the podcast. While we think Minari is the best film of this lot we will acknowledge that the others are actually all excellent films. Another Round has been raking in the other critics awards and will likely win, though the plot was a little too absurdist for me. 

• Another Round
• La Llorona
• The Life Ahead
• Minari
• Two of Us

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

The usual suspects return in this category. Apparently there are only about 7-10 working composers in rotation according to most awards voting bodies… The clear winner here is Soul for me.

• Alexandre Desplat, The Midnight Sky
• Ludwig Göransson, Tenet
• James Newton Howard, News of the World
• Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Mank
• Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste, Soul

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

None of these felt particularly outstanding so this one is rather a toss up. 

• Fight for You, Judas and the Black Messiah
• Hear My Voice, The Trial of the Chicago 7
• Io Sì (Seen), The Life Ahead
• Speak Now, One Night in Miami
• Tigress & Tweed, The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Television

Best Television Series — Drama

While it’s nice to see a popular show like The Mandalorian included, this category is not particularly exciting. The Crown or Ozark are likely to take home the award here. 

• The Crown
• Lovecraft Country
• The Mandalorian
• Ozark
• Ratched

Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy

While we have no issue with mindless entertainment (which Emily in Paris certainly qualifies as) the fact that it was nominated in this category is about the only truly funny thing about it. It’s inclusion serves to undermine the legitimacy of the Globes in general. While we hope that in their last (and arguably best) season Schitt’s Creek take home the honors, we could see the feel good Ted Lasso swooping in. Anything else winning would be a travesty. 

• Emily in Paris 
• The Flight Attendant
• The Great
• Schitt’s Creek
• Ted Lasso

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

What are the rules here? Some of these are just …. Series? And some are anthologies of movies? Normal People is a show that we finally started watching because of all the awards acclaim it was getting and actually strongly agree with it’s inclusion. The Undoing is the undeserving outlier here. Given how hard to categorize Small Axe actually is, we would envision something like Unorthodox managing to eek out the vote. 

• Normal People
• The Queen’s Gambit
• Small Axe
• The Undoing
• Unorthodox

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama

We honestly don’t care about this category at this point? Bateman or Odenkirk perhaps.

• Jason Bateman, Ozark
• Josh O’Connor, The Crown
• Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
• Al Pacino, Hunters
• Matthew Rhys, Perry Mason

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama

For once we agree with the talent of all the nominations, though the exclusion of Michaela Coel for I May Destroy You is inexcusable. We’d have probably swapped out Paulson for Ratched. 

• 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 — Musical or Comedy

We’d have said Eugene Levy was a shoo in for this but given the popularity of Ted Lasso (and it really is a delightful show) there’s an outside chance of an upset. Also don’t discount Ramy Youssef who has won previously.

• Don Cheadle, Black Monday
• Nicholas Hoult, The Great
• Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek
• Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso
• Ramy Youssef, Ramy

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

This is Catherine O’Hara’s to lose, and anyone else winning is a crime. 

• Lily Collins, Emily in Paris 
• Kaley Cuoco, The Flight Attendant
• Elle Fanning, The Great
• Jane Levy, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
• Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

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

Can we just purge this entire category for the 2021 Golden Globes? Is there an option to say “you know what, there just weren’t enough performances worth honoring so we’re cancelling this category this year”? Because that’s what we’d have done. Also how does one nominate Daisy Edgar-Jones for Normal People in the next category but not Paul Mescal? The show is truly a split between them. 

• 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 Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

We’ll support everyone but Nicole Kidman’s presence here. It’s likely that the movie star power of Blanchett and Kidman might cancel each other out, leaving room for the popular The Queen’s Gambit to take a win, but who knows. 

• 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 Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television

The lumping together of comedy and drama for supporting roles makes no sense. Levy is beyond deserving for his performance on Schitt’s Creek and yet by having his comedic / dramatic performance compete against all of these serious / “purely dramatic” performances puts him at an extreme disadvantage in the 2021 Golden Globes. 

• John Boyega, Small Axe
• Brendan Gleeson, The Comey Rule
• Daniel Levy, Schitt’s Creek
• Jim Parsons, Hollywood
• Donald Sutherland, The Undoing

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

Same goes for Annie Murphy in this category. Normally we’d say one of The Crown royalty could take it but given that they’re both there we’re guessing Ozark will swoop. 

• Gillian Anderson, The Crown
• Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown
• Julia Garner, Ozark
• Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek
• Cynthia Nixon, Ratched

Will you be watching the 2021 Golden Globes?