The cinematic awards race kicked off in earnest this morning, when Marlon Wayans and Skye P. Marshall announced the nominees for next year’s Golden Globe Awards. As usual, the nominations included a bunch of big musical names, and not just in the Best Original Song and Best Original Score categories.
Because I’m writing this blog post as the nominations are being announced, I’ll start off with those Best Original Song and Best Original Score nomination. They have absolutely no chance of winning, let’s start out by noting that two very consistent Stereogum presences, Nick Cave and the National’s Bryce Dessner, are now Golden Globe nominees. Dessner scored Train Dreams, and he and Cave teamed up for the end-credits song, which is also called “Train Dreams.” Today, Cave and Dessner are both first-time Golden Globe nominees for Best Original Song.
They’re up against some heavy hitters, at least in awards-season terms. Miley Cyrus’ Avatar: Dream As One song “Dream As One,” co-written with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, is another nominee, as is Miles Caton’s “I Lied To You,” from Sinners. Caton, one of the stars of Sinners, co-wrote that one with composer Ludwig Göransson. The two new Wicked: For Good songs, Cynthia Erivo’s “No Place Like Home” and Ariana Grande’s “The Girl In The Bubble,” are both nominated. (Stephen Schwartz wrote both.) But I’m guessing that all of them will lose to “Golden,” the giant HUNTR/X hit from Kpop Demon Hunters. “Golden” winning a Golden Globe seems like an obvious layup. (In this case, the award would go to songwriters Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, 24, Ido, and Teddy.)
As for Best Original Score, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood has been nominated for his work on One Battle After Another, his latest collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson. Greenwood was previously nominated for Phantom Thread and The Power Of The Dog. He has never won. This year, Greenwood once again competes against the two composers who beat him in the past: Alexandre Desplat, nominated for Frankenstein this year, and Hans Zimmer, currently up for F1. And hey, Max Richter is in there, too! He’s nominated for Hamnet. The aforementioned Ludwig Göransson, another previous winner, is also up for Sinners. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Göransson repeating.
As for the other categories, Jeremy Allen White is nominated for Best Actor – Drama for playing Bruce Springsteen in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. (White is a double nominee, also getting a Best TV Comedy Actor nod for The Bear.) Kate Hudson made the cut in Best Actress – Musical/Comedy for playing a member of a Neil Diamond tribute act in Song Sung Blue. As expected, pop stars Ariana Grande (for Wicked: For Good) and Teyana Taylor (for One Battle After Another) both got Best Supporting Actress nods. Does Adam Sandler count as a musician? He’s nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Jay Kelly. KPop Demon Hunters is in the mix for Best Animated Feature, and it seems like the prohibitive favorite. Also, KPop Demon Hunters is nominated in the “Cinematic And Box Office Achievement” category, which continues to be a real thing.
In the TV categories, Selena Gomez got another Best TV Comedy Actress nomination for Only Murders In The Building. I think that’s the only musically relevant TV acting nomination, since the Michelle Williams who got nominated for Dying For Sex is not the Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child. Variety has the full list of nominees.
Next year’s Golden Globes go down 1/5, and they’ll air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. Nikki Glaser will host.