Politics, race, music dominate Golden Globe film nominations

By Jill Serjeant and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Movies about race, politics and music dominated nominations for the Golden Globe awards on Thursday, setting the stage for the long Hollywood awards season leading up to the Oscars in February.

Dark comedy “Vice,” a scathing look at the career of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, led all comers with six nods, followed by the Lady Gaga musical remake of “A Star is Born,” British historical comedy “The Favourite” and road trip movie through 1960s segregated America “Green Book” with five nods apiece.

“Vice” director Adam McKay, who was also nominated, described the film as “an amazing portrayal of power.”

“What we tried to do was reflect the times that we are living in, which can be pretty absurd and pretty dramatic and tragic at the same time,” McKay told Reuters on Thursday.

The Golden Globes, chosen by the small Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the first major ceremony in Hollywood’s long awards season, will be handed out at a ceremony in Beverly Hills on Jan 6.

The movie line-up includes several other films about racial injustice – “If Beale Street Could Talk” from Barry Jenkins and director Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” – along with black empowerment superhero movie “Black Panther,” which gave Walt Disney Co the second-highest-grossing movie worldwide of 2018 with a $1.3 billion box office.

“Green Book” star Viggo Mortensen, who was nominated along with Mahershala Ali, said in a statement that the Universal Pictures film combines hope and compassion and asks audiences to “think profoundly about our society’s past and present.”

“Crazy Rich Asians,” the first major Hollywood movie in 25 years with an all-Asian cast, further diversified the Globes contenders with nods for best comedy and best actress for Constance Wu.

“Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think our movie would be embraced to this magnitude by the audience and now the HFPA,” director John Chu said in a statement.

Music featured strongly in picks like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” featuring Rami Malek as late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, “A Star is Born” – the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper remake of the classic show business romance – and “Mary Poppins Returns,” a sequel to Disney’s beloved 1964 film.

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“Vice,” won nominations in major categories, including for actors Christian Bale, as Dick Cheney, Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, and Sam Rockwell as former U.S. President George W. Bush. The film is distributed by independent Annapurna Pictures, which also led studios with 10 nominations overall.

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s much admired semi-autobiographical black-and-white film “Roma,” for streaming service Netflix, was nominated in the foreign language category. Cuaron also won a directing nod.

British actress Olivia Colman won a best actress nod for her turn as a petulant Queen Anne in the Fox Searchlight historical romp “The Favourite,” along with supporting stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz.

In television, limited FX series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” won the most nominations in the television category with four nods and helped the FX network take a leading 10 nominations.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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