Following the Awards Season 2020-2021: Golden Globe and SAG Nominations
After months of anticipation, the 2020-2021 awards season has finally kicked off with the first industry nominations rolling out after an onslaught of critic nominations over the past couple of months. While it is plenty fun to keep track of the various critic groups and early awards bodies, like the Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards, the narratives formed from these groups often become irrelevant in regard to the larger industry awards. A good example of this trend would include Ethan Hawke in First Reformed who swept the various groups and got completely shut out at the Oscars. Therefore, while a tremendous amount of love for films like First Cow, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Sound of Metal, and I'm Thinking of Ending Things have been shown so far in these smaller groups, it is important not to translate this to automatic industry success.
What backs this up isn't just history but the early insights into the industry's thoughts on the awards season so far. The largest of these insights came from the 2021 Golden Globe nominations, which kept the tradition of angering the Internet with unpopular and problematic choices around every corner. From James Corden getting a Best Actor nod for his inauthentic portrayal of the LGBTQ+ experience in The Prom to Sia's ableist feature Music getting in both for Best Actress and Best Picture; while frustrating, this is far from unprecedented. Unless trends start to appear, it shouldn't be super concerning regarding these becoming larger players in the awards season. The one shocking nomination that does seem to be a bit concerning is Jared Leto, who got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Little Things. Not only is this surprising considering the category isn't split between Drama and Musical/Comedy contenders like the other major categories, which is a major reason the Globes has so many unique picks, but this nomination was validated the very next day with a nomination for the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards. This is a clear step in the right direction for Leto to build momentum and become a serious threat for a nomination at the upcoming Academy Awards.
While it always is easy to look at the Golden Globes and feel frustrated by the bad surprises, it also is worthwhile to acknowledge the inspired choices that got a nomination. Even if again the impact of this is limited when it comes to the road to the Oscars, it never hurts for individuals like Tahar Rahim from The Mauritanian, Dev Patel from The Personal History of David Copperfield, Rosamund Pike from I Care A Lot, and Bill Murray from On the Rocks to get attention from a major awards body such as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). The Golden Globes also gives the first real look at possible line-ups in a select few of the below-the-line categories such as Best Original Score, Best Original Song and also the Best International Feature categories – which is always helpful for starting to build a top 5 for these categories. Once again, however, the conversation needs to be careful regarding anything seeming like a lock this early in the season. One only needs to look back to 2019, when the Best Original Score winner First Man missed the Oscar line-up, to see that starting strong in the conversation doesn't always translate to future success.
As mentioned, the next day saw the nominations for the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards get announced, which serves as the next piece of the puzzle regarding the narrative of the award season. Where an individual nomination from either group might not be a gigantic deal, seeing nominations in both is a good sign of larger industry support. For individual acting nominations, the crossover between the two groups includes Riz Ahmed for Sound of Metal, Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Anthony Hopkins for The Father, Gary Oldman for Mank, Viola Davis also for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Vanessa Kirby for Pieces of a Woman, Frances McDormand for Nomadland, Carey Mulligan for Promising Young Woman, Sacha Baron Cohen for Trial of the Chicago 7, Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah, Jared Leto for The Little Things, Leslie Odom Jr. for One Night in Miami, Maria Bakalova for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy, Olivia Colman for The Father, and Helena Zengel for News of the World.
Individuals who only managed to score one nomination between the two groups – such as Amy Adams for Hillbilly Elegy, Steven Yeun for Minari, or Amanda Seyfried for Mank – should not be seen as dead in the water in regards to their awards chances going forward, but their journeys simply have hit a bit of a bump in the road. It is also worth noting Delroy Lindo and Paul Raci's miss in both nomination lists for Da 5 Bloods and Sound of Metal respectively, which is a sign that these early critic favorites might not share an equal level of industry support. Da 5 Bloods also had a rough week, as the film missed entirely at the Golden Globes but did manage to get a nomination for the prestigious Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Whilst this category might have lost a bit of value in recent years compared to when it was seen as an almost needed prerequisite to the Best Picture prize at the Oscars, it still holds quite a bit of value and seeing films like Mank, The Father, Sound of Metal, and Nomadland all miss a nomination immediately makes them questionable as possible Best Picture winners. Their misses opened the door for Da 5 Bloods, Minari, and One Night in Miami to get solid boosts in their Best Picture races while confirming Trial of the Chicago 7 and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as top tier contenders.
While there is no denying how exciting it is to see these larger nominations start to roll out, especially after a prolonged awards season, it has to be respected how early in the season we are. There are still nearly two months to go before Oscar nominations are announced and there is plenty of time for campaigns to both gain and lose momentum within that time frame. As a general reminder to Film Twitter, these peeks into the industry really are early previews. Although they are valuable, they in no way define what this awards season is going to look like. Whether the next turn is good or bad, Clapper will continue to provide coverage from now until the Oscar ceremony in April so keep your eyes peeled for more Following The Awards Season articles and awards coverage!
