This morning may have only been the day we learned the nominees for the 2020 Golden Globe Awards, but the night already has its first big winner, Netflix. The streaming service had a huge day, picking up multiple nominations for four different films, The Irishman, Marriage Story, The Two Popes and Dolemite is my Name.
All four films picked up nominations in their respective categories for Best Picture, which means, in the case of the drama category, three of the five nominees are Netflix films. 1917 and Joker fill out the category to attempt to defend the honor of the traditional theatrical release.The same situation plays out in the Best Screenplay category as all three dramas are nominated, along site Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and Parasite.
On the acting front, Eddie Murphy got a nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and then the three dramas hold court once again. The two leads of Marriage Story, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver each took a nomination in their respective categories. Laura Dern was also nominated for Supporting Actress in Marriage Story. Both of The Two Popes were nominated, Jonathan Pryce as Best Actor - Drama and Anthony Hopkins as Best Supporting Actor. Joe Pesci and Al Pacino will be competing against each other for Best Supporting Actor for their roles in The Irishman. Conspicuous by his absence, Robert De Niro was not nominated for his lead role in the film.
And to round out the nominations, Marriage Story took a nomination for Best Original Score and Martin Scorsese took his familiar place in the Best Director category for The Irishman. The only places Netflix didn't come away with at least one nomination were Best Original Song, Animated Feature, and Foreign Language Film.
And all this is just within the movie sphere, Netflix took home an armload of additional nominations on the television side of things thanks to shows like The Crown and Unbelievable.
This certainly isn't Netflix's first big day at the ball, but it's further evidence that the streaming service is a force to be reckoned with. We've seen Netflix with big movies in the past, but this year there are four big movies and even if no one movie sweeps the awards, Netflix could basically split the show up amongst itself and walk away with nearly every award.
Of course, the massive number of nominations is far from a guarantee of wins. There is some still competition in every category from the likes of Parasite, Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood. It's just as likely at this point that Netflix gets edged out in most categories and walks away with little to nothing.
On the plus side, if you're the sort of person who has trouble making it the theater to see a lot of movies, you can watch most of the Golden Globes nominees without leaving your home. Three of the four nominated Netflix films are available to watch right now. The fourth, The Two Popes, is set to drop on the service December 20, so you'll be able to watch it before the Golden Globes hits next month.
