The Golden Globes announced their nominations for the 81st annual ceremony Monday morning, as the longstanding awards show attempts to return to form following years of controversy. (For anyone needing a recap, in 2021 the LA Times published a series of investigations uncovered ethical lapses and a total lack of Black members within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Earlier this year, the awards' former voting body was dissolved, and the awards were then acquired by Dick Clark Prods.) As the first major televised awards show of the season, some of the Globes' noms were highly expected: Barbie led the film nominations with nine total, followed by Oppenheimer with eight. On the TV side, Succession was the most-awarded with nine noms total, followed by The Bear and Only Murders in the Building with five each. As for the calls for the Globes to include more inclusive noms, per The Hollywood Reporter, 72 of the 90 performance nomination slots went to non-Hispanic white people, even as some standout performances (including Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon and Ayo Edebiri for The Bear) received their deserved recognition.
Still, the Globes nominations included plenty of surprises, snubs, and genuine head-scratchers for awards watchers to discuss in the lead up to the ceremony, which will air on Sunday, Jan. 7 on CBS and Paramount+. Read on for our biggest takeaways from the noms, arranged by the responses "Yay," "Wow," and "What the heck?"
