79th Golden Globe nominations: ‘Belfast,’ ‘The Power of the Dog’ lead troubled awards

Erik Anderson December 13, 2021

Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog led the nominations for the 79th Golden Globe Awards today, which were announced by HFPA president Helene Hoehne and Grammy-winning rapper Snoop Dogg. The films earned seven nominations apiece, including Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Director and Best Screenplay. Each film also earned three acting nods as a part of their tally.

But the morning didn’t come without a heavy cloud over its head. Just over a year ago, the oft-ridiculed Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who put on the Golden Globes, was hit by an exposé by the LA Times that revealed the less than 90-member group of LA-based international journalists had no Black members among their ranks. On top of several questionable nominations (par for the course for the Golden Globes), the group’s penchant for gifts and incentives was also hit hard, ironically by the networks and studios who provide them. As a result, longtime show partner NBC decided to drop out of the 2022 telecast. In August, the Hollywood Foreign Press announced on that for HFPA president Phil Berk was expelled as a member of the organization after accusations of sexually assaulting actor Brendan Fraser resurfaced. “Effective immediately, Phil Berk is no longer a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” the HFPA’s board said in a statement earlier this year.

Hoehne addressed the situation at the opening of her presentation: “This has been a year of change and reflection for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” she said. “For eight months, we’ve worked tirelessly as an organization to be better. We changed our rules and bylaws, added a new code of conduct, and restructured our governance. We also have 21 new members, the largest and most diverse in our 79-year-old history. Not only have they brought in a fresh perspective, but ideas that will help us continue to evolve.”

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, in light of these scandals, committed to sweeping changes in their board of directors, membership (including adding 21 new members with voting rights this season), and a wider diversity standard for new members. Also, a new CEO/CFO was appointed and other Executive Team approved and engaged to manage HFPA. Several of these changes have already been implemented but it remains to be seen how Hollywood at large will respond to the group’s changes moving forward.

After two years in a row of controversy over non-English language films produced by U.S. companies being relegated to the formerly named Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language category (Minari this year, The Farewell and Parasite last year), the org is now allowing those films to compete in either Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Minari went on to be Best Picture nominated at the Oscars and win Supporting Actress for Youn Yuh-jung, who was not Golden Globe-nominated. The Farewell won Awkwafina the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe but was snubbed at the Oscars. Parasite won the Globe for Foreign Language Film and then went on to become the first non-English language film to win the Best Picture Oscar.

“As we reexamined our guidelines this year and listened to the industry, we decided to adopt new approaches for future shows ensuring these films receive the attention they deserve,” said Ali Sar, President of the HFPA. “Language will no longer be a barrier to recognition as the best.”

Despite this change, no non-English language film was nominated in either of the top two motion picture categories.

The same rule against animated films was also lifted and they now once again can compete in those categories as well as their specialized category. Animated films were allowed to compete in Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy as recently as 17 years ago and three have won, all Disney or Pixar: Toy Story 2 (1999), The Lion King (1994) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). Under the 2007 revised rules of the HFPA, animated pictures were no longer eligible in this or the category of Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, instead competing exclusively in the new category of Best Animated Feature Film.

One rule that was seemingly broken today was the group’s bylaws that forbade documentaries from being nominated in any category. But NEON’s Flee, an animated documentary about an LGBTQ refugee, made the cut for animated film.

Other top nomination getters in motion picture were Licorice Pizza, Don’t Look Up, King Richard and West Side Story with four apiece, then Being the Ricardos, Dune and Encanto with three. Several big snubs also happened this morning, including big zeros for Dear Evan Hansen and, more surprisingly, Nightmare Alley and The Last Duel. Lady Gaga was the sole nominee for House of Gucci, where the HFPA couldn’t find space for Jared Leto in order to make room for Troy Kostur in CODA and Ben Affleck in The Tender Bar.

Here is the complete list of motion picture nominees (television nominations to come). The HFPA still plans on a Golden Globes ceremony January 9, 2022 (the same day as Critics’ Choice and their televised show) but gave no details as to what, where or how the show would look like.

Best Motion Picture, Drama

“Belfast” (Focus Features)

“CODA” (Apple)

“Dune” (Warner Bros.)

“King Richard” (Warner Bros.)

“The Power of the Dog” (Netflix)

Best Picture, Musical or Comedy

“Cyrano”

“Don’t Look Up” (Netflix)

“Licorice Pizza” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)

“Tick, Tick … Boom!” (Netflix)

“West Side Story” (20th Century Studios)

Best Director, Motion Picture

Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”)

Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”)

Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Lost Daughter”)

Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”)

Denis Villeneuve (“Dune”)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

Mahershala Ali (“Swan Song”)

Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”)

Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”)

Will Smith (“King Richard”)

Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Leonardo DiCaprio (“Don’t Look Up”)

Peter Dinklage (“Cyrano”)

Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick … Boom!”)

Cooper Hoffman (“Licorice Pizza”)

Anthony Ramos (“In the Heights”)

Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

Ben Affleck (“The Tender Bar”)

Jamie Dornan (“Belfast”)

Ciarán Hinds (“Belfast”)

Troy Kotsur (“CODA”)

Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”)

Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”)

Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”)

Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”)

Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Marion Cotillard (“Annette”)

Alana Haim (“Licorice Pizza”)

Jennifer Lawrence (“Don’t Look Up”)

Emma Stone (“Cruella”)

Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story”)

Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture

Caitríona Balfe (“Belfast”)

Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”)

Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”)

Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”)

Ruth Negga (“Passing”)

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture

Paul Thomas Anderson — “Licorice Pizza” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)

Kenneth Branagh — “Belfast” (Focus Features)

Jane Campion — “The Power of the Dog” (Netflix)

Adam McKay — “Don’t Look Up” (Netflix)

Aaron Sorkin — “Being the Ricardos”

Best Original Score, Motion Picture

“The French Dispatch” (Searchlight Pictures) — Alexandre Desplat

“Encanto” (Walt Disney Pictures) — Germaine Franco

“The Power of the Dog” (Netflix) — Jonny Greenwood

“Parallel Mothers” (Sony Pictures Classic) — Alberto Iglesias

“Dune” (Warner Bros.) — Hans Zimmer

Best Motion Picture, Animated

“Encanto” (Walt Disney Pictures)

“Flee” (Neon)

“Luca” (Pixar)

“My Sunny Maad” (Aerofilms)

“Raya and the Last Dragon” (Walt Disney Pictures)

Best Picture, Foreign Language

“Compartment No. 6”

“Drive My Car”

“The Hand of God”

“A Hero”

“Parallel Mothers”

Best Original Song, Motion Picture

“Be Alive” from “King Richard” (Warner Bros.) — Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Dixson

“Dos Orugitas” from “Encanto” (Walt Disney Pictures) — Lin-Manuel Miranda

“Down to Joy” from “Belfast” (Focus Features) — Van Morrison

“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from “Respect” (MGM/United Artists Releasing) — Jamie Alexander Hartman, Jennifer Hudson, Carole King

“No Time to Die” from “No Time to Die” (MGM/United Artists Releasing) — Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.