The Golden Globes loves Paul Thomas Anderson

Well, One Battle After Another is the toast of the Golden Globe nominations and Wicked: For Good is… not. That’s the biggest immediate takeaway of the first indicator as to how the awards race next year is likely to pan out. The many nuances and surprises of Monday’s announcement are not only a fascinating insight into the state of Hollywood in 2025, but also a reminder that the Globes have always prized big star names above everything else – including, perhaps, the worthiness of their inclusion.

We have George Clooney nominated for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his undemanding performance in the so-so Jay Kelly, and Julia Roberts being recognized for Best Actress in a Drama for her appearance in the widely ridiculed, practically unseen cancel-culture drama After the Hunt. Jacob Elordi, increasingly being seen as the man of the hour – even before the sure-to-be-divisive Wuthering Heights steals all the discourse next Valentine’s Day – has two nominations, one for his poignant Creature in Frankenstein and one for his appearance in the miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North. And the likes of Jude Law, Michael B. Jordan, Emma Stone and Adam Sandler are all recognized in some form or another, even if most of their performances could not, in truth, be described as their finest work.

It is most interesting to see which films have been obviously beloved by the voters thus far. Frankenstein, which I thought was a higher-end Guillermo del Toro work but not an obvious classic, has really cut through, with nominations for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor for Oscar Isaac and Elordi and Best Original Score. Wicked: For Good, which was received by critics more coolly than the original, was shut out of the Best Musical or Comedy category – somewhat to my surprise – but the Stellan Skarsgård picture Sentimental Value, which has been building momentum for months, now has eight nominations, a remarkable number for a non-English-language film. And Sinners has done very well, bursting out of its apparent confines as a genre picture.

Yet it is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Pynchon semi-adaptation One Battle After Another, leading the field with nine nominations, that looks as if it’s going to pull off an Oppenheimer-level sweep after having won at the various critics’ awards so far. It is not hard to see why. It would reward a writer-director who has been nominated numerous times but never won any prizes, acknowledges the political situation in America without necessarily taking one side or another, nods to Pynchon himself and, of course, recognizes Leonardo DiCaprio, whose supposed appearance in Michael Mann’s Heat 2 might see this fine actor appear in his first sequel – to a film he never appeared in in the first place – since Critters 4.

As for the television nominations, they have become almost formulaic now. I am weary of seeing the same old shows crop up over and over again – it would have been kinder to acknowledge that the last series of The White Lotus was far from its best, and I am unconvinced that the increasingly dour The Bear can still be described as a comedy – but we can, I assume, expect The Studio and Adolescence to triumph all over again, as they did at the Emmys. And I have my fingers crossed, probably fruitlessly, that Gary Oldman and Slow Horses will get the acclaim they deserve, although I suspect that Pluribus and Noah Wyle will be taking those particular accolades.

Hollywood is a fearful place at the moment, with the studios all joining one another and then being snapped up by streaming services. The nonsensical “Cinematic and box office achievement” award, designed to acknowledge films that make a lot of money – the Wicked, yet-to-be-released Avatar and K-Pop Demon Hunters award, in other words – indicates the gulf between the intelligent, adult-oriented pictures that get nominated for most of the awards, and the rubbish that people still want to go and see. Roll on The Odyssey next summer for a film that will bridge the gap, but until then, this year’s crop will have to do.