The Hollywood Foreign Press Association membership consists of only 90 or so Southern California-based international journalists yet its annual Golden Globe Awards regularly rival the extravagance of the Oscars, which are run by a much larger 17-branch, nearly 8000 strong voting membership of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Sure, Globe and Oscar differ in density, but their annual awards nominations often closely parallel each other with the Globe nominations rolling out the red carpet for the Hollywood talent that’ll end up raking in the same well-deserved nominations at the Oscars.
That being said, Oscars and Globes occasionally split hairs, with Globes often tipping its hat to the most deserving candidates left high and dry by the Oscars. In that spirit, here are 10 actors, writers, and directors recognized by the Golden Globes and overlooked by the Oscars.
Leonardo DiCaprio - Best Supporting Actor for Django Unchained (2012)
Playing Calvin Candie, the daddy’s boy slave owner who had no issue holding down his meal while watching a pack of vicious canines rip a man into pieces, DiCaprio dominated the screen in the second half of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. How about that bloody fine dining negotiation scene between DiCaprio and Waltz?
While filming the scene, DiCaprio actually slammed his hand on the table, shattering a small glass into pieces that slit his hand open. But he continued the scene, picking pieces of glass out of his fingers while wrapping up one of the most racist diatribes in cinematic history. That scene alone should’ve landed DiCaprio an Oscar nod, but only the Globes took note enough to nominate his performance in 2012.
Christopher Nolan - Best Director for Inception (2010)
Everybody remembers that first Inception trailer that dropped. No? Okay, well, everybody at least remembers that music. Inception is not only one of the most financially successful films of Christopher Nolan’s career, but it’s also probably his most artistically accomplished. Nolan interpreted character dreams as hackable databases full of valuable information, breaking them down into layers stacked one atop the other, the flow of each layer dependent on the one above it and all of them governed by a list of set-in-stone rules.
And all of this is done within the framework of a heist movie, yet Nolan still manages to make the plot easy to follow. That’s one hell of a feat that Oscar failed to recognize but Globe readily honored by nominating Christopher Nolan for Best Director in 2010.
Forest Whitaker - Best Actor for Bird (1988)
Forest Whitaker didn’t land his first Oscar nomination (and win) until 2006 for playing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, but his first Globe nomination came way back in 1988 for what might still be his best performance, which was as legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood’s Bird.
Whitaker’s portrayal of one of the all-time greatest and most influential jazz musicians showcased the wisdom and maturity of an actor well beyond his 27 years of age. He nailed the role and landed a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for it despite being ignored by Oscar. And sadly, not only did the Oscars overlook Whitaker’s performance in Bird, but the box office did too; according to Box Office Mojo, Bird only grossed $2,181,286 worldwide in its theatrical release.
Kathryn Bigelow - Best Director for Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Kathryn Bigelow had already become the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar in 2009 for The Hurt Locker, so her landing another Best Director Oscar nod for an arguably just-as-great film in 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty seemed like a no-brainer. Nonetheless, Bigelow was left off the Best Director list come Oscar nominations morning. Oh, but maybe Bigelow just didn’t deserve the nomination?
Just watch the Osama bin Laden compound raid scene in Zero Dark Thirty and try to honestly say that Bigelow didn’t deserve the Best Director Oscar for that sequence alone. Fortunately, Globe didn’t make the same mistake as Oscar in 2012 and indeed did nominate Bigelow for her direction of Zero Dark Thirty.
Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin - Best Adapted Screenplay for Raging Bull (1980)
Wait, what? The greatest boxing movie of all time and the American Film Institute’s #4 ranked movie in their 100 Years… 100 Movies list wasn’t Oscar-nominated for its screenplay? Indeed, it wasn’t. Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull landed eight Oscar nominations, but a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination wasn’t one of them.
The script is a marvel of storytelling, somehow managing to get the audience pulling for Jake LaMotta (DeNiro), possibly the toughest boxer who’s ever lived, despite LaMotta being so egotistical and violently unpredictable that he regularly battered his wife (Cathy Moriarty) and even once beat his brother (Joe Pesci) to a pulp in front of his own wife and kids. Nonetheless, the Golden Globes recognized the accomplishment that was Raging Bull with a Best Screenplay nomination in 1980 just as they did with Schrader’s Taxi Driver screenplay in 1976, which was also ignored by the Oscars. Seriously, can’t the Oscars just organize a do-over?
Ava DuVernay - Best Director for Selma (2014)
How could Oscar shun Selma director Ava DuVernay for helming such a great and important film? That’s not to say that 2014 Best Director Oscar nominees Anderson, Iñárritu, Linklater, Miller, and Tyldum didn’t make great films. They did make great films (okay, maybe Linklater’s Boyhood isn’t as great as it thinks it is).
But while great films so often slip into a specific artistic niche and limit their demographic, DuVernay focuses on a specific time in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s civil rights crusade to craft a story as broadly appealing as it is emotionally affecting. Taking all of that into account, the Golden Globes gave Ava DuVernay a well-deserved Best Director nomination in 2014.
Jake Gyllenhaal - Best Actor for Nightcrawler (2014)
Few actors working today possess the guts that Jake Gyllenhaal has as an onscreen performer. After slimming down by 30 pounds for the role of stringer Louis Bloom in 2014’s Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal told Variety that he maintained that weight by regularly running 15 miles to set and chewing luxury gum while shredding calories on an exercise bike.
That’s all not to mention the single-minded, ice-cold determination Gyllenhaal instilled into a character who was equally repulsive and fascinating. Oscar left Gyllenhaal empty-handed for Nightcrawler in 2014, but the Globes did recognize his career-best work with a Best Actor - Drama nomination.
Gillian Flynn - Best Adapted Screenplay for Gone Girl (2014)
Based on her novel of the same name, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl film adaptation doesn’t cut her characters any slack, most notably in the case of Amy Dunne, Rosamund Pike’s villain (or anti-hero, depending on the viewer’s capacity for forgiving brutal, cold-blooded murder).
Most characters in Gone Girl are haunted by the shadow of their past mistakes, which ultimately may not prove to be mistakes so much as who the characters really are and always will be. Ignored by Oscar, Flynn’s Gone Girl screenplay nonetheless did land a Globe nomination for Best Screenplay in 2014.
Steven Spielberg - Best Director for Jaws (1975)
That’s right. The Oscars didn’t throw a Best Director nomination Steven Spielberg’s way for Jaws in 1975. Not only did Spielberg forever evolve the formula of how Hollywood films are made, but he also accomplished the feat of rendering audiences utterly horrified by a Great White Shark that has only four minutes of actual screen time in the entire film, according to Yahoo.
Well, that and he also directed Robert Shaw’s legendary USS Indianapolis monologue. But the Globes did honor Spielberg’s achievement with Jaws by nominating him for Best Director in 1975 and hopefully, Spielberg will nab another Golden Globe Best Director nomination for his upcoming West Side Story remake.
John David Washington - Best Actor for BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Despite terrific support by top-notch actors, including Adam Driver in an Oscar-nominated performance, John David Washington bears the heaviest artistic weight of BlacKkKlansman by carrying the film on his shoulders. Tasked with injecting dry wit into the film’s chillingly relevant subject matter, Washington effectively walks the line between satire and slapstick to craft a story where the horror is simultaneously relieved and reinforced by the humor.
Oscars didn’t turn up with a Best Actor nomination for Washington’s performance, but Globes did acknowledge his achievement by nominating him for the Best Actor - Drama award.
