2018 Golden Globe Awards: ‘The Shape of Water’ leads movie nominations, ‘Big Little Lies’ has the most TV nods

December 11, 2017

by Carla Hay

With seven nominations, “The Shape of Water” is the leading contender overall and in the movie categories for the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which is set to take place at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2018. NBC will have the U.S. telecast of the show, which will be hosted by Seth Meyers. The HBO limited series “Big Little Lies” received the most Golden Globe nominations (six) in the TV categories.

The Golden Globe Awards are presented and voted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Dick Clark Productions (DCP) produces the telecast.

The nominations for the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced at the Beverly Hilton on December 11, 2017 by actors Alfre Woodard, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Bell and Sharon Stone,  with HFPA president, Meher Tatna and DCP executive vice president of television Barry Adelman. Eligible movies are those with theatrical releases of at least one week in the U.S. in 2017. Eligible TV shows are those that premiered new episodes in the U.S. in 2017.

NBC will televise “Golden Globes 75th Anniversary Special” at 9 p.m. ET/PT  on December 13, 2017. “Will & Grace” stars Eric McCormack and Debra Messing are hosts of the show.

Predicted Contenders

“The Shape of Water” is also the top nominee at the 2018 Critics’ Choice Awards, and the American Film Institute has named “The Shape of Water” among the 10 best films of 2017.  Almost all of the films nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globes have also received similar nominations at other award shows so far. They include “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “The Post,” “Lady Bird” and “I, Tonya.”

In the TV categories, several shows that made the Golden Globes nominations list in addition to the Emmy-winning “Big Little Lies” have also been nominated or won at the 2017 Emmys, including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “This Is Us,” “Stranger Things,” “Feud: Bette and Joan,” “Fargo,” “The Wizard of Lies” and “The Crown.” (“Game of Thrones” was not eligible for the Emmys this year.)

Movie Snubs and Surprises

Noticeable movie snubs include “The Big Sick,” which has been getting a lot of nominations at other award shows that honor movies. However, “The Big Sick” failed to get any Golden Globe nominations. Jordan Peele has been racking up nominations at several other award shows for writing and directing the critically acclaimed hit “Get Out,” but he was left out of the Golden Globes race for writing and directing. However, as one of the producers of “Get Out,” Peele did get a Golden Globe nod for Best Motion Picture. Curiously, even though “Get Out” is a thriller/horror movie, the Golden Globe Awards put it in the category of comedy or musical, where “Get Out” did manage to get two Golden Globe nominations: for Best Motion Picture and for Best Actor.

Superhero and sci-fi movies have a tough time getting nominations outside of technical/production categories (such as visual effects, production design, editing and cinematography), so it’s not too surprising that “Wonder Woman,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Logan” were shut out of the Golden Globes, even though these movies were critically acclaimed hits. It’s unknown if enough Golden Globe voters saw “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in time to vote for it, and “Blade Runner 2049” got too many mixed and disappointed reactions from critics and audiences to be a serious Golden Globes contender.

Two films that have been embraced by the Golden Globes but snubbed at other movie-related ceremonies so far are the musical “The Greatest Showman” and the kidnapping drama “All the Money in the World,” which received three nominations each. “All the Money in the World” was abruptly re-shot and re-edited in November 2017, one month before its release, to remove co-star Kevin Spacey after his sexual misconduct scandal made him a Hollywood pariah. Spacey was replaced in the film by Christopher Plummer, who received a Golden Globe nod for the film, as did the movie’s lead actress Michelle Williams and director Ridley Scott.

Meanwhile, the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs feature film “Battle of the Sexes” has been virtually ignored by most award shows so far, but managed to get two Golden Globe nods for stars Emma Stone and Steve Carell. Although “Battle of the Sexes” is really a drama, the Golden Globes have it in the category of musical or comedy. This misplacement of dramatic, non-musical movies in the musical or comedy category is something that seems to happen every year with the Golden Globes, and it’s one of the biggest criticisms that the show gets.

TV Snubs and Surprises

In the TV categories, the Golden Globe voters show that they have very different tastes from Emmy voters when it comes to comedies. “Veep,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Modern Family,” which consistently get Emmy nominations and/or wins, failed to receive any Golden Globe nominations this time around. (“Atlanta,” which has won Golden Globes and Emmys, was not eligible for any Golden Globes this year because the show did not air any new episodes in 2017.)

Former Golden Globe favorites “Orange Is the New Black,” “House of Cards” and “Transparent” were completely snubbed. “House of Cards,” which starred Spacey until he was fired from the show in October 2017, was no doubt tainted by his sex scandal. “Transparent” also seems to have met a similar fate: the show’s star Jeffrey Tambor quit “Transparent” in November 2017, after he was accused of sexually harassing two of his “Transparent” co-workers. Tambor has denied the allegations. Spacey has apologized for one allegation against him made  by actor Anthony Rapp, but Spacey has not publicly commented on numerous other allegations against him. “House of Cards,” which already announced that its sixth season premiering in 2018 will be the show’s last season, has since announced that Spacey will not be replaced, and Robin Wright will take the lead role in the cast. “Transparent” will also continue without Tambor, but the show has not yet announced any details about future storylines or other changes to the cast.

The Golden Globes embrace TV newcomers, and many of the TV nominees in the comedy categories are newbies such as “SMILF” (two nominations), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (two nominations), as well as “The Good Doctor,” “GLOW,” “The Deuce” and “I Love Dick,” which received one nomination each. However, there’s a big difference between new, original shows and “new-ish” shows that are reboots or remakes. Of the many TV series that were rebooted or remade this year, only two received Golden Globe nominations: “Will & Grace” (two nods) and “Twin Peaks” (one nod), which is a clear indication that Golden Globe voters are not enamored with most new versions of old TV shows. In addition, TV shows that are based on movies got completely snubbed.

Sexual Harassment Fallout

As previously mentioned, sexual misconduct scandals seem to have had an effect on Netflix’s “House of Cards” and Amazon’s “Transparent” being snubbed by the Golden Globes this year. Several other actors who have in recent months been hit with sexual misconduct allegations include Jeremy Piven, Ed Westwick, Danny Masterson and Dustin Hoffman. None of them was expected to get any Golden Globe nominations this year, although Hoffman campaigned for his role in the Netflix movie “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).”

Louis C.K.’s sexual misconduct scandal in November 2017 and his admission that all the allegations against him are true have virtually ensured that he won’t be nominated for any major awards for the foreseable future. His FX comedy series “Louie,” which has been on hiatus since 2015, was cancelled after the scandal hit, and the show would have been ineligible for any awards this year anyway. Louis C.K. was an executive producer of FX’s “Better Things” until the network fired him from the show, but “Better Things” star/executive producer Pamela Adlon received a Golden Globe nod despite the scandal.

The Weinstein Company, which ousted co-founder Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, was not surprisingly shut out of the Golden Globes race this year, although the company didn’t have any really serious awards contenders for the first time in years. The closest to being an awards contender was the crime thriller “Wind River,” but award-show buzz for the movie had already faded before the Weinstein scandal hit.

However a sexual misconduct scandal seems to have had no negative effect on the award-show chances for Pixar Animation Studios, which placed chief creative officer John Lasseter on leave for sexual misconduct in November 2017. Pixar still got Golden Globe nominations for “Coco,” which is already being touted as the Oscar frontrunner to win Best Animated Feature.

“Genius” star Geoffrey Rush, nominated for a Golden Globe in the limited series, has been accused of sexual harassment, but he has vehemently denied the allegations, which were published in November 2017 by Sydney-based newspaper the Daily Telegraph. Rush is now suing the Daily Telegraph for libel.

Amazon Studios, which ousted chief Roy Price in November, had mixed results at the Golden Globes this year, by receiving three nominations, but only in the TV categories: two nods for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and one nomination for “I Love Dick.” Amazon’s movies released in 2017 were completely snubbed by the Golden Globes, most notably “The Big Sick,” which is Amazon’s 2017 movie that is most likely to be nominated at any major award show that honors movies.

The following is the complete list of nominations for the 2018 Golden Globe Awards:

1.       BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA