Breaking Down The 2025 Golden Globe Nominations!

Awards Season is officially here, and with the nominations for the Golden Globes this morning, we finally get our first look at how the Oscar race can shape out this year!

But before we get into shiny gold knights, let's get into some shiny gold globes! Here are some highlights and tidbits from this morning's nominations that stood out to us:

- Musicals and musicians made quite an impressive showing in the lists this year, with Wicked unsurprisingly kicking off its Awards Season run with 4 nominations. Both Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will vie for acting nods, though thankfully not in the same category, and the film itself is up for Best Musical/Comedy Film and Box Office Achievement. Sadly, though, no love for director Jon M. Chu. But it's film festival darling Emilia Pérez that came out swinging with a whopping 10 nominations (the most for any one title this year, film or television, and for any Musical/Comedy ever!), including its 3 stars Karla Sofia Gascón, Selena Gomez, and Zoe Saldana, and its writer/director Jacques Audiard, who was recognized in both those categories as well as Best Original Song for "El Mal". The film has 2 songs in the Best Original Song category in fact, whereas the Globes were apparently not holding space for "Defying Gravity" or any of the songs from Wicked.

- Elsewhere in music world, Miley Cyrus earned her second Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song (her first since 2009's "I Thought I Lost You" from Bolt) for "Beautiful That Way" from The Last Showgirl.

- The category of  Best Director is always incredibly packed and competitive, considering it does not distinguish between Dramas and Comedies like the other categories do, which is why it was a pleasant surprise to see not one but TWO women directors nominated this year -- Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine As Light and Coralie Fargeat for the much-buzzed-about The Substance. These two ladies beat out the likes of Ridley Scott (Gladiator II), Jon M. Chu (Wicked), and Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part Two) so big kudos to them!

- And on the topic of The Substance, as we expected, star Demi Moore finds herself nominated in the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy category (her third Globes nomination overall and first since 1996!), as well as her co-star Margaret Qualley for Supporting Actress. Fargeat is also nominated for Best Screenplay. Moore's nomination bodes very well for her first-ever Oscar nomination. By the same token, Pamela Anderson, who has earned tons of praise for her dramatic turn in Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl, finds herself a first-time Golden Globes nominee as well, and could also very well vie for that Best Actress next year.

- Another film fest fave, Anora, made an impressive showing with 5 nominations, including Best Musical/Comedy Film, Best Actress for breakout star Mikey Madison, Supporting Actor (Yura Borisov), and double-nominations for its writer and director Sean Baker. We expect some love at the Oscars for this one too.

- Hugh Grant, whose performance in Heretic was universally praised but lamented as an inevitable Awards Season snub due to awards voters' seeming bias against horror flicks, broke through this year with a well-deserved nomination for Best Actor in a [checks notes] Musical or Comedy. Okay. At any rate, we're excited for this one -- it's his 7th nomination, and his only win was way back in 1995 for Four Weddings and a Funeral!

- Our favorite menage à trois tale Challengers managed to squeak in with 4 nominations, including Best Comedy/Musical Film, Best Score, Best Original Song, and Best Actress for Zendaya. She is up against some stiff competition, though, including Cynthia Erivo, Demi Moore, and, surprisingly yet not surprisingly(?), Amy Adams, whose unhinged turn in the bizarre Nightbitch had us scratching our heads but also sarcastically musing that this could be the role that finally wins her the Oscar -- the joke might be on us, folks!

- Glen Powell makes his big Awards Season splash this year thanks to his performance in Hit Man, which has earned him a Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy Film nom. Also in this category is Gabriel LaBelle, who apparently made quite the impression on voters for his role as legendary producer Lorne Michaels in Saturday Night.

- Timothée Chalamet continues to prove he is one of the hottest young actors of this generation with his 4th Globes nomination this year for his portrayal of music legend Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. It's his first time being nominated for playing a real-life person, which is always catnip to awards voters, so his chances vastly improve this year.

- Gladiator II did not make as big of a splash as its predecessor, with no nods for its director Ridley Scott or star Paul Mescal, nor even Best Drama Film. However, after taking tons of heat this past year for choosing to forego any kind of "historical" accent in his role, Denzel Washington had the last laugh as the only artist from the film with a nomination. So there!

- Although Hans Zimmer's score for Dune: Part Two was deemed ineligible for Oscar and BAFTA consideration because it contained too much music from the first film, the HFPA was like "we got you fam" and allowed him to compete for Best Score at the Globes.

- Following their award-winning streaks on "Succession", both Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin make the leap from TV dominance to big screen accolades, with Supporting Actor nominations for their films The Apprentice and A Real Pain, respectively.

- On the TV side of things, "The Bear" once again leads the way with 5 nods while once again insisting it's a comedy (to be fair, there are a lot of titles this year that are in categories that seem a litte... off; see The Substance and The Heretic above), including last year's winners Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri. While the show was expected to dominate at the Emmys earlier this year, it found itself on the wrong end of an upset by HBO's "Hacks" and its star Jean Smart -- with both that show and actor nominated at the Globes as well, will we see a repeat of that? Or will another series/actor reign surpreme?

- Speaking of the Emmys, the dominate Drama Series "Shogun", which won an incredible 18 Emmy Awards earlier this year, continues its impressive run, notching 4 nominations total including Best Drama Series and acting nods for stars Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada (who both won Emmys) as well as Tadanobu Asano. 

- In a curious move, Season 2 of "Squid Game", which hasn't even aired yet, is apparently already making waves as it made a surprise appearance on the list for Best Drama Series. It was also a nominee in this category back in 2022, though, unlike this year, 2 of its actors were nominated (one, Oh Yeong-su, won), while no actors were nominated this year. At any rate, this turn of events certainly jacks up the hype factor for when Season 2 officially drops on Netflix on December 26!

- Speaking of one-hit wonders, HBO's "House of the Dragon", the heir apparent to "Game of Thrones", received only one nomination this year -- Emma D'Arcy for Best Actress in a Drama Series. They were also nominated in 2023 as well as the show for Best Drama Series, but that is not the case this year. Though, as I have pointed out before, the "Game of Thrones" franchise has, for whatever reason, never been a huge hit with the HFPA.

- Double nominations are aplenty this year, with several actors finding themselves in multiple categories: Selena Gomez is up for both Emilia Pérez and "Only Murders In The Building"; Kate Winslet is nominated for both Lee and "The Regime"; and Sebastian Stan is competing against himself for both The Apprentice and A Different Man. Incidentally, Nikki Glaser will also find herself pulling double-duty of sorts, as both the host of the ceremony and as a nominee for Best Standup Special!

- Turns out that the second season of Ryan Murphy's "Monsters" series, which focuses on the Lyle and Erik Menendez case, was more than just a viral sensation -- it's a bona fide Awards Season contender! The series itself earned a nod in the Best Limited Series category, while Javier Bardem was nominated for his unhinged performance as murdered patriarch Jose Mendendez. Meanwhile, Cooper Koch's captivating performance, highlighted by that sensational one-take episode, was duly rewarded in the Best Actor in a Limited Series category. 

- In other Ryan Murphy news, Tom Hollander's mesmerizing performance as Truman Capote in "Feud: Capote vs. The Swans" was overlooked by Globes voters, with only Naomi Watts representing the series with a nod for Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series.

- Comic book IPs made themselves known as projects to be taken seriously this year, as DC's "The Penguin" and Marvel's "Agatha All Along" find themselves with some nods. The latter received a lone yet no less deserved nomination for its incredible star Kathryn Hahn, while the former also enjoyed some love for its star, Colin Farrell, as well as nominations for his co-star Cristin Milioti and for Best Limited Series. Its inclusion in this category seems to confirm that this was just a one-off series, however there has been talk of a second season being developed. (I imagine we'll not hear any concrete information about that until AFTER the ceremony...) It wasn't all great news for genre television, though, as Prime Video's video game adaptation "Fallout" -- which got 16 Emmy nominations -- laid a big goose eggs with Globes voters, as did Joker: Folie à Deux, which some expected to be Lady Gaga's big bid for a second Best Actress Oscar nomination. Also on the outs is summer blockbuster smash hit Deadpool & Wolverine, which makes an obligatory appearance in the Box Office category but not in the Comedy/Musical category.

- It's also worth noting that Netflix completely dominated all other networks, studios, and media companies this year with a whopping 36 total nominations! The next closest contender is A24 with 12 nods.

Check out the full list of nominees here and tune in to the 82nd annual Golden Globes on January 5th on CBS and Paramount+!