The biggest surprises (and snubs) from the 2025 Golden Globe nominations

The Golden Globes, as wacky as ever, are back for another round. The nominations announced on Monday morning offered a trademark mix of critical darlings and populist fare, and the awards are considered one of the biggest bellwethers of who might win at the Oscars.

“Wicked,” which has soared to more than $400 million at the worldwide box office, landed a coveted spot in a best motion picture category and nods for stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande (the latter as a supporting actress). Critical favorites and best motion picture contenders such as “Anora” and “The Brutalist” racked up nominations across the board for writer-directors Sean Baker and Brady Corbet, respectively, as well as their stars.

“Conclave,” the papal drama that seems tailor-made for Oscar nods, predictably racked up six nominations, including one for star Ralph Fiennes. “Shogun” and “The Bear” reign supreme over on television, though the most exciting inclusion might be all the love for hot rabbi Adam Brody (nominated for “Nobody Wants This” alongside co-star Kristen Bell).

The Globes, with its relatively small voting body of international entertainment journalists, continue to straddle a strange space, sometimes regarded as a legitimate indicator for the Academy Awards while also rewarding things such as “cinematic and box office achievement” (in an indecipherable manner, since box-office behemoths “Dune: Part Two” and “Moana 2” didn’t make the cut). Not much has outwardly changed since the ceremony returned to TV in 2023, two years after a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed ethical misconduct among members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The Globes were soon after acquired by Eldridge and Dick Clark Productions, and have jumped from NBC to CBS.

The 82nd annual Golden Globes will air Sunday, Jan. 5, on CBS and stream on Paramount Plus. Here are the surprises and snubs that threw us for a loop.

The first real “whoa” of the day was probably hearing director Coralie Fargeat’s name for best director. “The Substance” — starring Demi Moore as an aging Hollywood star who starts injecting a dangerous new neon green drug to become a version of her younger self (played by Margaret Qualley) — is no doubt a directorial tour-de-force with a singular vision. But it’s also a gory body horror movie and came up nearly blank in the many awards that have been announced in the past week. (Save for Moore’s nomination for an Independent Spirit Award.)

Globes noms for Fargeat, both Moore and Qualley, screenplay and motion picture (drama) are a clear signal, though, of the film’s enduring popularity. It was a constant trending topic on X and has grossed more than $56 million at the box office, an astonishing number for an artsy horror film that premiered at Cannes. Now we’ll have to wait to see whether the Oscars are cool enough to follow suit. — Jada Yuan

The Globes (and Critics Choice) is the populist awards show. The fun one! The one with the great party! And “Dune: Part Two” is a verifiable blockbuster that grossed more than $700 million worldwide and was touted as proof earlier this year that movies are really, truly back. Critics loved director Denis Villeneuve’s bold, epic vision, too, including that incredible black-and-white sequence of a menacing Austin Butler in a gladiators’ arena. But the film released on March 1 after multiple strike-related delays, and its momentum seems to be deflating.

It’s maybe understandable that the Globes didn’t give the actors any love. But then Villeneuve got snubbed for best director. And it didn’t even get a nod for the dubious “cinematic and box office achievement” award, which seems designed to just make sure Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman walk away with something. In the end, it got only two nominations, for best motion picture (drama) and Hans Zimmer’s score. It’ll likely do better with Oscars nominations, which include more technical categories, but this sandstorm is looking bad. — J.Y.

Leave it to the Globes to turn the supporting actress in a musical or comedy category into a pop superstar showdown. The past few weeks, Ariana Grande has surged to the front of the supporting actress Oscar race for her very funny, captivating turn as Glinda in “Wicked.” Selena Gomez, however, has barely been in the conversation for “Emilia Perez,” in which she plays the wife of a cartel boss (Karla Sofía Gascón). She’s also had to gracefully weather criticism for performing the role in Spanish, which is not her native language, while her co-star Zoe Salda?a has been considered a lock for a supporting actress Oscar nom since summer.

So it was a pleasant surprise to see Gomez get a nod alongside Salda?a, months after they both won a special prize for the film’s quartet of actresses at Cannes. Gomez also beat out the women of “A Complete Unknown” (Monica Barbaro and Elle Fanning), Natasha Lyonne of “His Three Daughters” and a surging Carol Kane who just took home the New York Film Critics Circle award for “Between the Temples.”

Now we just have to hope the Globes will reach its true purpose and set Grande and Gomez against each other in a karaoke battle. — J.Y.

Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of “The Piano Lesson,” an August Wilson play, was nowhere to be found among the Globe nominations. The 1930s drama about the legacy of a formerly enslaved family was well received by critics, with many singling out actress Danielle Deadwyler, who delivers an impassioned performance as a woman who refuses to cede a precious family heirloom to her brother, played by John David Washington. That’s Washington as in Denzel, by the way — he is the father to brothers Malcolm and John David. Their film was better received than “Gladiator II,” and yet the patriarch is the only one who landed a nomination on Monday (for his whimsical supporting performance as a power-hungry Roman). Classic Globes. — Sonia Rao

The final nomination for best director even seemed a surprise to presenter Mindy Kaling, who realized during the announcement broadcast that she had forgotten to read the name of the sixth nominee: Payal Kapadia, the Indian filmmaker behind “All We Imagine as Light.” The heartfelt drama — a joint venture by companies from France, India, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — follows two nurses in Mumbai as they navigate newfound romances. It has been well received by critics and won the second most prestigious prize at the Cannes Film Festival (where Kapadia previously won a documentary award for her 2021 film “A Night of Knowing Nothing”).

All that said, Kapadia wasn’t as sure a bet for the category as the five filmmakers nominated alongside her (that includes Fargeat, a gratifying pick but not a complete surprise). That she earned a nod instead of others like Villeneuve (“Dune: Part Two”), Jon M. Chu (“Wicked”) or RaMell Ross (“Nickel Boys”), whose films are represented elsewhere, bodes well for how “All We Imagine as Light” could perform as an international feature at the Oscars. — S.R.

“A Complete Unknown” is a fitting title for a film that barely anyone has seen. The Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet is set for a Christmas release, and its Globe nominations are sure to drum up excitement. Chalamet was nominated alongside supporting actor Ed Norton, who delivers a pitch-perfect performance as singer-songwriter Pete Seeger that just earned an award from the Boston Society of Film Critics. While director James Mangold didn’t manage to snag a directing nod, the film itself landed one of six spots in best motion picture, drama. The bar is high for this one — Dylan fans don’t hold back — but it looks like Timmy might stand a chance. — S.R.

Just last week, A24’s “Sing Sing” seemed like the movie, other than “Wicked,” that was having the biggest winning streak. That streak ended Monday. The tearjerker about a real-life theatrical arts program in a prison, starring formerly incarcerated actors, had received a social justice tribute at the Gotham Awards and won acting awards for Colman Domingo in lead and Clarence Maclin, a graduate of the Sing Sing program, in supporting. It also got three Independent Spirit Award nominations and was named one of the American Film Institute’s top 10 movies of the year — a big predictor for Oscars’ best picture lineup.

But at the Globes, Domingo was the film’s sole nominee. Maclin, considered an Oscar front-runner, didn’t make the lineup for best supporting actor in a musical or comedy. And the film didn’t even make the best motion picture (drama) list, getting edged out by “September 5,” a potboiler about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics that got zero other nominations. — J.Y.

The second that Donald Trump won the election, awards prognosticators posited that Stan’s chances for a best actor nomination were cooked. After all, he’d played a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” and it seemed unlikely that anyone in Hollywood would want to reward that now. The twist is that Stan also had another lead performance in “A Different Man,” as an actor who gets surgery to “fix” a rare facial condition and soon regrets it. Would Oscar voters go for that performance now that “The Apprentice” was out?

The Globes has cleared up none of that guessing because, in a rare feat, Stan got nominated for both, as lead actor in a drama for the former and lead actor in a musical or comedy for the latter. He pulled off the double nom in the Globes that pundits think Saoirse Ronan might pull off at the Oscars (for her supporting role in “Blitz” and her lead role in “The Outrun”). And if Stan wins — most likely for “A Different Man,” in a category with less stiff competition — his chances for an Oscar nomination are looking, as our past and future president might say, terrific! Stupendous! Outstanding! — J.Y.

“Nobody Wants This” found its audience among millennials who missed Adam Brody’s moody musings as Seth Cohen in “The O.C.” In the Netflix series, he plays a “hot rabbi” in Los Angeles who falls for the non-Jewish host of a sex podcast (Kristen Bell) — quite a departure from Seth, but a heartthrob nonetheless. Although the show hasn’t earned critical accolades a la “The Bear” or “Hacks,” both competitors in the comedy category, the Globes love a binging-friendly hit. — S.R.