Netflix Dominates Golden Globes Nominations

Hollywood disruptor Netflix dominated the Golden Globe nominations Monday as its heart-wrenching divorce saga ‘Marriage Story’ grabbed six nods including best drama, kicking off the race for the Oscars.

The streaming giant, which has spent billions to lure the industry’s top film making talent and fund lavish awards season campaigns, trounced the traditional Tinseltown studios with a whopping 17 film nominations.

'I’m not surprised by the dominance -- I’m surprised by how massive the dominance is,' Lorenzo Soria, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, told AFP at the Beverly Hills ceremony.

'The announcements this morning are sort of like a coming-of-age of the streaming services.'

'The Irishman,’ Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour gangster epic also from Netflix, secured five nominations, ending tied for second with ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,' Quentin Tarantino’s nostalgic love letter to 1960s Tinseltown.

The nominations traditionally see the stars and movies destined for awards success start to break away from the competition -- the Globes are seen as a major bellwether for February’s Academy Awards.

‘Marriage Story’ earned nominations for its stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, and for its screenplay, but Noah Baumbach missed out as director.

The film portrays how a seemingly stable love can be ripped apart after Johansson’s actress moves from New York to Los Angeles, calling in the lawyers as she separates from a self-absorbed theater director played by Driver.

Scorsese was nominated for best director for ‘Irishman’ but there was no best actor nod for his leading man Robert De Niro. Instead, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci were selected for supporting roles.

For ‘Once Upon a Time...’ stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt made the acting shortlists, along with Tarantino for directing. The film helped Sony to reach eight nominations and finish second overall.

Netflix’s ‘The Two Popes,’ which imagines a series of debates between the strict, conservative Pope Benedict and his charismatic successor Francis, also performed well for the streamer, picking up acting nominations for Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins.

And Eddie Murphy’s comeback vehicle ‘Dolemite Is My Name’ added a further two nominations for Netflix on the comedy side.

The streamer managed three film nods last year, for Mexican black-and-white drama ‘Roma.’