Emilia Pérez

Jacques Audiard’s groundbreaking musical Emilia Pérez upends expectations at every turn, resulting in a poignant epic about women’s ability to transform, forgive, and connect. Originally imagined by Audiard as an operatic libretto, the film follows a cartel boss (Karla Sofía Gascón) seeking to leave behind her past and live as her authentic self. Rita (Zoe Saldaña) is the lawyer hired to help her make that leap, while Jessi (Selena Gomez) is Emilia’s wife and young mother left reeling from the events. “We took each other as we came, and we held space for each other,” Saldaña told Queue. “I praise art that is able to depict women just being marvelous and supporting one another.” 

The film earned nominations across the board — for Gascón in the Best Female Actor (Comedy or Musical) category, becoming the first transgender actress to be nominated in a Motion Picture Category; for Saldaña and Gomez in the Supporting Actress race; and for Audiard’s screenwriting and direction. In addition to vying for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), Emilia Pérez was also nominated for Best Non-English Language Motion Picture and for its score, composed by Clément Ducol and Camille. Finally, two songs from the film earned nods: “Mi Camino” performed by Gomez, and “El Mal” sung by Saldaña.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

In the latest stop-motion feature from Aardman Animations, the inventive crime-busters Wallace and Gromit go head-to-head once again with their most formidable nemesis Feathers McGraw, the sinister penguin who first appeared in 1993’s animated short, The Wrong Trousers. Here, Feathers sets his sights on Wallace’s latest gadget, a “smart gnome” dubbed the Nifty Oddjobbing Robot Garden Gnome, a.k.a. Norbot. The cinematic return of the beloved cheese enthusiast and his anthropomorphized canine was years in the making for co-director Nick Park, who created the beloved characters. Now, it’s up for a Golden Globe for Best Animated Motion Picture. 

Maria

In Pablo Larraín’s operatic Maria, Angelina Jolie gives a transformative performance as American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas in the final days of her life. The film opens in Paris of 1977, with the 53-year-old Callas reflecting on and reimagining the experiences that shaped her — triumphs and tragedies, many experienced under the unrelenting glare of the spotlight as one of the most gifted opera singers of the century. Through it all, Jolie’s performance is riveting — she carries herself with the bearing of a grande dame of the arts, a must for the role. But arguably one of her most stunning achievements onscreen is the way in which Jolie, who previously had no formal singing training, belts out some of Callas’s most famous arias. For her indelible work, Jolie earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Female Actor (Drama). 

Hit Man

All easy charm and charisma, Glen Powell can do no wrong as Gary Johnson, a tech-savvy philosophy professor who moonlights as a fake hitman for police stings in Richard Linklater’s sexy, romantic thriller. Powell’s arresting turn in the inspired-by-true-life tale — which sees Johnson embark on a high-stakes affair with a client who falls for his killer persona Ron — earned him his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Male Actor (Comedy or Musical). Notably, he also produced the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater, adapting a 2001 Texas Monthly article by journalist Skip Hollandsworth about the real-life Johnson. “We got all of Skip’s research [including] Gary Johnson’s sting operations,” says Powell. “He was the Laurence Olivier of fake hit men.”

The Diplomat

Creator and writer Debora Cahn’s The Diplomat makes a return trip to the list of Golden Globe hopefuls with its second consecutive nomination in the Best Drama Series category, with star Keri Russell once again earning a nod for her work in the leading role as Kate Wyler, an American diplomat and ambassador to the United Kingdom. The second season raises the storytelling stakes, opening moments after Kate has just learned about an explosion in London that affects her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell) and members of her staff, including her deputy chief of mission, Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh).

The explosive second season also saw the arrival of Allison Janney as Vice President Grace Penn, a now Golden Globe-nominated role.  “I could not believe she was asking me to come join this cast. I have to tell you, it was really intimidating because I fell in love with these characters on the screen,” explains the Best Supporting Female Actor in a Television Series nominee. “Debora Cahn gave Grace a great entrance. She’s fierce, she’s a fighter, she’s a player. For someone like me, who’s none of those things, I find stepping into these powerful women is just my joy.” 

Squid Game

International hit series don’t come bigger than Squid Game, meaning that the pressure on the second season to live up to the stratospheric heights of its predecessor was significant. Soon after the Korean series debuted in 2021, it quickly became a global juggernaut, earning legions of fans and massive amounts of critical acclaim. The first season made history at the Emmys in 2022 with 14 nominations, including the first-ever Outstanding Drama Series nod for a Korean series, going on to win a total of six prizes, including for star Lee Jung-jae. Now, the second season has earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama Series, with this new installment of the phenomenon set for release on December 26.

Baby Reindeer

Yet another highly bingeable global obsession, Richard Gadd’s riveting if harrowing limited series Baby Reindeer earned three nominations, Best Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Television Motion Picture among them. Gadd, whose own experiences inspired the drama, was nominated for his starring performance as down-on-his-luck comedian Donny, whose single act of kindness toward a lonely woman sparks a stalking nightmare. Jessica Gunning also received a nomination for her turn as Martha, a woman whose obsession with Donny imperils his life.

“I knew I had to give it everything, so I threw myself into the role,” Gadd told Queue’s Krista Smith. “I lost loads of weight to do it. I really wanted to capture the brokenness that I felt at the time. I wanted to feel what I felt back then, so I did a lot of quite painful psychological recall and tried to get my body into a place where I felt vulnerable — all the while managing hectic schedules and creative discussions, which can be long and difficult. It was very intense, but sometimes you have to go through that stuff to hopefully get to a place where something’s quite good.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

When it comes to creating award-worthy television, Ryan Murphy certainly seems to have the golden touch. The second installment of his Emmy-winning anthology Monster series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, debuted this fall to critical acclaim, revisiting the years leading up to and following the trial of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez (played by breakthrough performers Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch). The siblings shattered the picture-perfect image of their wealthy Beverly Hills family when they were charged with killing their parents Jose and Kitty (played here by Academy Award winner Javier Bardem and Golden Globe winner Chloë Sevigny) in 1989.

Now, just like its record-breaking first season, which focused on the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, Monsters has been nominated for a Golden Globe in the Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Television Motion Picture race. Bardem and Koch also earned nominations for their performances as Jose and Erik Menendez, respectively. Offers Murphy: “The interesting thing about the Monster show is that it asks the question, Who is the monster? How are monsters made? Are they born? And in this season particularly, there are many different types of monsters. That’s the fascinating thing: to write about cultural monstrosities.”

Ripley

Andrew Scott’s performance as Patricia Highsmith’s infamous antihero Tom Ripley in the limited series Ripley left critics and audiences staggered. Scott scored his latest Golden Globe nomination for his starring role in Steven Zaillian’s impeccably crafted limited series, which sees the drifter connive his way into the good life after being recruited to bring Dickie (Johnny Flynn), the son of a wealthy businessman, home from an extended Italian holiday. “I think what’s gripping about the show is that we see the logic of what he has to do to survive, and each episode leads us in a very particular way,” Scott told Queue’s Krista Smith. “We spend time with the character when he’s doing these things and [see] how much of an expert he isn’t. Sometimes what he’s really talented at is being able to think really, really quickly.”

Scott’s co-star Dakota Fanning also earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work as Marge, who gets drawn into Tom Ripley’s world thanks to her relationship with Dickie. Fanning relished her screen time with Scott. “There were some moments where we were so [in character that we just wanted] the other one to drop dead. Steve would cut, and Andrew and I [would say to each other], ‘You bitch!’ Then we’d crack up,” says the actress. “We had to bring that play and joy to it. The tension between the two of us [would be so palpable] that when “cut” would happen, my whole body would relax. That energy is harder than running all day. So, I loved it.”

Nobody Wants This

The must-binge show of the fall, writer-creator Erin Foster’s uproarious romantic comedy Nobody Wants This chronicled the sparks that fly when a sex-positive podcaster falls for a sweet-natured rabbi whose family is dead set on him settling down with a nice Jewish girl. Inspired by Foster’s own love story, the Los Angeles-set tale garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical or Comedy Series, with stars Kristen Bell and Adam Brody earning acting nods as well. “I thought the dynamic was so interesting: one person who is bad at adulting and the other person who’s almost too good at adulting,” Bell says of the push-pull between Joanne and rabbi Noah, played by a supremely charming Adam Brody, who was also nominated. “They’re polar opposites in almost every way, but their desire for growth, even if subconsciously, [draws] them together.”

Foster says she instinctively knew her own backstory had the makings of a fresh, funny, and very modern series. “When I met my husband Simon, I was a fully formed person, and I was not understanding how I would ever compromise my life and have a new person come into it because I was just very self-sufficient and very independent,” says Foster, who ultimately joined her husband’s faith and converted to Judaism. “We learned so much about each other [during the conversion] process. I learned about all the things that [were] pushing my buttons and pushing his buttons. It felt like it was interesting and ripe territory for a show.”

The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie’s rough-and-tumble dark comedy The Gentlemen was the filmmaker’s first foray into television, expanding the universe of his 2019 hit film of the same name for the small screen. “If anything, I had too much material to work with rather than too little,” Ritchie says. “There was such a deluge of characters and narratives in my head that squeezing them all in was always going to be the real problem.” Now a Golden Globe nominee for Best Musical or Comedy Series, The Gentlemen sees straight-arrow army man Eddie Horniman (Theo James) called back to the English estate where he grew up after his father’s passing, only to discover a secret, sprawling marijuana operation housed on the grounds run by a family of wily ne’er-do-wells.

A Man on the Inside

Ted Danson returns in A Man on the Inside, which reunites him with The Good Place creator Mike Schur in their latest comedic outing. Based on the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, Danson stars as Charles, a retired professor who gets a new lease on life when a private investigator hires him to go undercover inside a San Francisco retirement home. Danson, no stranger to the Golden Globes with 11 previous nominations and three wins, can add Charles to his nominated characters, with the actor earning a nod for Best Television Male Actor in a Musical or Comedy Series, in addition to being the Carol Burnett Award honoree at the upcoming ceremony. 

Black Doves

When Keira Knightley first was approached about starring in the offbeat spy thriller Black Doves, her answer was an immediate “yes.” The appeal lay in the surprising way creator Joe Barton had deftly taken classic espionage tropes and flipped them on their head, sending secret agent Helen Webb on “a mad, deranged killing spree with her best friend who’s an assassin” during England’s Christmas holiday. “The juxtaposition of those things was quite excellent,” Knightley told Queue. “That’s the reason that I wanted to work on this. The whole concept made me laugh.”

This morning, the two-time Oscar nominee received her fourth Golden Globe nomination, this time for her starring turn in the drama, opposite Ben Whishaw, who portrays Helen’s devoted friend. “It’s honoring the lineage of the spy genre in the way that you have these two characters that can be quite melancholy . . . [but] they can talk to each other and allow all their monstrous, horrific, wonderful sides to be shown,” says Knightley of the characters’ strong rapport. “They can be utterly their own extreme, weird creatures.”

Griselda

With Griselda, Sofía Vergara brought to the screen one of the most notorious drug lords of the 1970s: Griselda Blanco, a woman who fled an abusive spouse and turned to the narcotics trade to make a better life for her family and community, only to become the power-hungry and paranoid leader of one of the most profitable cartels in history. “Imagine Tony Montana packing a lunch box,” says Vergara of her character, referencing Al Pacino’s antihero in the movie Scarface. “She definitely was not as famous as someone like Pablo Escobar, but we’ve never seen a drug lord organize a shipment of cocaine from Colombia, and then go home to take care of her three kids.”

Vergara’s transformative performance scored her a nomination for Best Television Female Actor (Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Television Motion Picture). The role in the miniseries, which Vergara also executive-produced, allowed the four-time Emmy-nominated former Modern Family actor to showcase her wide-ranging talents and venture into new territory. “I had never really acted in Spanish before or done anything that wasn’t comedy,” she told Queue. “When you go into something new, you have more insecurities because I wanted to do the best job that I could. But it was a fun challenge.”

Adam Sandler: Love You

Directed by Josh Safdie, Adam Sandler: Love You, the comedian and actor’s first stand-up special in six years, was nominated in the Globes’ stand-up category. Thrillingly unpredictable, the special features the usual blend of songs and jokes, along with party-crashing dogs and plenty of love. It’s pure stream-of-consciousness Sandler, exactly what his legions of fans ordered.

Ali Wong: Single Lady

Also nominated in the Globes’ stand-up category is Ali Wong: Single Lady, which sees the comedian dish on the highs, lows, and surprises of dating postdivorce in her fourth original comedy special for Netflix. As candid as always, Wong shares a diversity of experiences, recalling the movie director she broke up with after just three weeks and the 25-year-old Midwesterner who would only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Recounting her fun and exciting sexual adventures, Wong describes herself as “a romantic hoe” at heart, someone who’s excited to fall in love again. 

Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was

Actor and entertainer Jamie Foxx makes his return to stand-up comedy in his new special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was, now nominated for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. In his first outing since his 2023 hospitalization, the Oscar winner hits the stage with vulnerability and hilarity. “If I can stay funny, then I can stay alive,” Foxx remarks in the special.