‘The Shape of Water’, ‘Big Little Lies’ lead Golden Globes 2018 nominations

Guillermo Del Toro’s romantic fantasy film The Shape of Water led the Golden Globes race with seven nominations on the list that was announced on Monday. These include nominations for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Actress – Drama for Sally Hawkins.

The Shape of Water is centred on the friendship between a speech-impaired Elisa (Hawkins) and an amphibious sea creature, played by Doug Jones.

The 75th Golden Globes awards ceremony will be held on January 7, with Seth Meyers as the host.

Steven Spielberg’s The Post and Martin McDonaugh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri bagged six nominations each, including for Best Picture in the drama category and Best Director. Other nominees for Best Motion Picture - Drama include Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Luca Guadagnino’s indie romance Call Me by Your Name.

Actress Greta Garwig’s directorial debut Lady Bird got four nominations, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, where it contends with James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out, Michael Gracey’s ’s The Greatest Showman and Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya.

The much-talked about All the Money in the World, directed by Ridley Scott, received three nominations including a Best Supporting Actor nod for Christopher Plummer and Best Director for Scott. Following multiple allegations of sexual harassment against actor Kevin Spacey that emerged in October and November, Scott replaced the actor with Plummer as billionaire industrialist J Paul Getty in the thriller. Several sequences of the movie were then reshot in record time to meet its December release date.

Competing for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama are Daniel Day Lewis for Phantom Thread, Timothée Chalamet for Call Me by Your Name, Tom Hanks for The Post, Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour and Denzel Washington for Roman J Israel, Esq.

The nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama include Jessica Chastain for Molly’s Game, Sally Hawkins for The Shape of Water, Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Meryl Streep for The Post and Michelle Williams for All the Money in the World.

In the Musical or Comedy category, the Best Actor nominations were received by Ansel Elgort for Baby Driver, Steve Carell for Battle of the Sexes, James Franco for The Disaster Artist, Hugh Jackman for The Greatest Showman and Daniel Kaluuya for Get Out. The Best Actress nominations in the Musical and Comedy category include Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird, Judi Dench for Victoria & Abdul, Margot Robbie for I, Tonya, Emma Stone for Battle of the Sexes and Helen Mirren for The Leisure Seeker.

In the animated features section, the competitors are The Boss Baby, The Breadwinner, Coco, Ferdinand and Loving Vincent.

In the television world, HBO’s Big Little Lies (initially planned as a miniseries that has now been renewed for a second season) led the pack in with six nominations, including acting nominations for Alexander Skarsgard, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley. The all-star cast drama, created by David E Kelly, is an adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s 2014 novel of the same name, is also competing in the Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture made for Television category alonside Fargo, Feud: Bette and Joan, The Sinner and Top of the Lake: China Girl.

Among networks, HBO led the way with 12 nominations followed by Netflix, with nine nods.

Nominees for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy include Black-ish, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Aziz Ansari’s Master of None, SMILF and Will & Grace.

Contenders for Best Television series - Drama include Netlix’s The Crown and Stranger Things along with Game of Thrones, This Is Us and The Handmaid’s Tale (based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name).