Golden Globes 2023: The Banshees of Inisherin leads with eight nominations

Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin has scored an impressive eight nominations for the upcoming Golden Globes awards. In a rare occurrence, four actors from the same film were mentioned. Colin Farrell competes in best actor (musical or comedy). Barry Keoghan and Brendan Gleeson are nominated against one another for best supporting actor. Kerry Condon is up in best supporting actress.

There will be double celebrations in the Gleeson household this morning as Domhnall Gleeson’s performance in The Patient secures Brendan’s son a nomination for best supporting actor in a limited series, anthology series or television movie.

The Banshees of Inisherin, the most nominated title this year, is also up for best score, best screenplay, best director and best picture (musical or comedy).

[ The Banshees of Inisherin film review: An impeccable cast eats up the succulent dialogue ]

The Golden Globes, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), have always been an indifferent pointer to the more-important Oscars, but, in a potentially spectacular awards season for Irish actors, Jessie Buckley will have been disappointed not to land in best supporting actress for Sarah Polley’s Women Talking. Paul Mescal must also have been in the running for best actor, but did not make the final five.

The Golden Globes, handed out at a private event this year following controversies surrounding the HFPA, will return to NBC television and the Beverly Hilton on January 10th. It remains to be seen how seriously the Hollywood community will regard this season’s ceremony.

Mere weeks before the 2021 show, the Los Angeles Times reported – to no great surprise – that the HFPA had no black members and that some voters had received lavish gifts. Tom Cruise (conveniently not nominated this year for Top Gun: Maverick) returned his two Globes in protest. Last month Brendan Fraser, who alleged that Philip Berk – former president of the HFPA – once groped him, announced he would not attend the show even if he were nominated for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. Fraser’s name was read out this morning and there will be a distinct frisson in the room when the best actor (drama) award is presented. Fraser looks like the current favourite for the Oscar. The HFPA has instituted reforms but doubts inevitably remain.

Kerry Condon in The Banshees Of Inisherin. Photograph: Jonathan Hession/20th Century Studios

Today’s nominations do provide whispers (at best) as to what is up and what is down in the race for the Oscars. No film can feel quite so pleased with itself as McDonagh’s searing rural comedy. In contrast, Polley’s Women Talking, an ensemble piece concerning abused women in a Mennonite community, looks to have underperformed, scoring just two nominations, neither of them for acting.

Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, an R-rated study of early Hollywood, did a little better than expected with a nomination for best drama picture – perhaps at the expense of the acclaimed Indian film RRR. Babylon picked up a highly respectable five nominations, including acting nods for Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. The most nominated TV show was the amiable schoolyard comedy Abbot Elementary.

The two films competing most closely with Banshees for best picture at the Oscars are Steven Spielberg’s memory piece The Fabelmans, with five Globes nominations, and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s science-fiction comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once, which is up in six races.

In an aberration typical of the Globes, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis competes not in the “comedy or musical” category, but in the drama section. Austin Butler, who plays the King in that biopic, is thus in a position to take the best drama actor prize from Fraser and save the organisers some face (presuming Butler turns up).

For all the HFPA’s difficulties, it cannot be denied that today’s news lends Banshees some extra momentum. Guy Lodge of Variety was among those charting a change in the prevailing Oscar winds. “I don’t think you needed the Golden Globe nominations to underline the point,” he wrote. “But The Banshees of Inisherin is just quietly creeping into pole position this awards season: a film that lots of people, especially actors, really like, and is enjoyable but also has something to say.”

We will learn more when the Oscar nominations are announced on January 24th.

Nominations for the 80th Golden Globes

Best Motion Picture, Drama

Avatar: The Way of Water
Elvis
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Triangle of Sadness
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best Director, Motion Picture

James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
Daniels – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Baz Luhrman – Elvis
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Steven Spielberg – The Fablemans

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

Austin Butler – Elvis
Brendan Fraser – The Whale
Hugh Jackman – The Son
Bill Nighy – Living
Jeremy Pope – The Inspection

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Diego Calva – Babylon
Daniel Craig – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Adam Driver – White Noise
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ralph Fiennes – The Menu

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

Cate Blanchett – Tár
Olivia Colman – Empire of Light
Viola Davis – The Woman King
Ana de Armas – Blonde
Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

Lesley Manville – Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Margot Robbie – Babylon
Anya Taylor Joy – The Menu
Emma Thompson – Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Brad Pitt – Babylon
Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin
Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Eddie Redmayne – The Good Nurse

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Angela Basset – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dolly De Leon – Triangle of Sadness
Carrie Mulligan – She Said

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture

Todd Field – Tár
Daniels – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Sarah Polley – Women Talking
Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner – The Fabelmans

Best Original Score, Motion Picture

Carter Burwell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Alexandre Desplat – Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Hildur Gudnadóttir – Women Talking
Justin Hurwitz – Babylon
John Williams – The Fabelmans

Best Original Song, Motion Picture

Carolina – Where the Crawdads Sing
Ciao Papa – Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Hold My Hand – Top Gun: Maverick
Lift Me Up – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Naatu Naatu – RRR

Best Foreign Language Film

All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium/France/Netherlands)
Decision to Leave (South Korea)
RRR (India)

Best Animated Feature Film

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Inu-Oh
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Turning Red

Best Television Series, Drama

Better Call Saul
The Crown
House of the Dragon
Ozark
Severance

Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical

Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Hacks
Only Murders in the Building
Wednesday

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama

Jeff Bridges – The Old Man
Kevin Costner – Yellowstone
Diego Luna – Andor
Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul
Adam Scott – Severance

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical

Donald Glover – Atlanta
Bill Hader – Barry
Steve Martin – Only Murders in the Building
Martin Short – Only Murders in the Building
Jeremy Allen White – The Bear

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama

Emma D’Arcy – House of the Dragon
Laura Linney – Ozark
Imelda Staunton – The Crown
Hilary Swank – Alaska Daily
Zendaya – Euphoria

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical

Quinta Brunson – Abbott Elementary
Kaley Cuoco – The Flight Attendant
Selena Gomez – Only Murders in the Building
Jenna Ortega – Wednesday
Jean Smart – Hacks

Best Miniseries, Anthology or Motion Picture Made for Television

Black Bird
DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
The Dropout
Pam & Tommy
The White Lotus

Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

Jessica Chastain – George & Tammy
Julia Garner – Inventing Anna
Lily James – Pam & Tommy
Julia Roberts – Gaslit
Amanda Seyfried – The Dropout

Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

Taron Egerton – Black Bird
Colin Firth – The Staircase
Andrew Garfield – Under the Banner of Heaven
Evan Peters – DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Sebastian Stan – Pam & Tommy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Musical, Comedy, or Drama

John Lithgow – The Old Man
Jonathan Pryce – The Crown
John Turturro – Severance
Tyler James Williams – Abbott Elementary
Henry Winkler – Barry

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Musical, Comedy, or Drama

Elizabeth Debicki – The Crown
Hannah Einbinder – Hacks
Julia Garner – Ozark
Janelle James – Abbott Elementary
Sheryl Lee Ralph – Abbott Elementary

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series/Anthology or Motion Picture

F Murray Abraham – The White Lotus
Domnhall Gleeson – The Patient
Paul Walter Hauser – Black Bird
Richard Jenkins – DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Seth Rogen – Pam & Tommy

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series/Anthology or Motion Picture

Jennifer Coolidge – The White Lotus
Claire Danes – Fleishman is in Trouble
Daisy Edgar-Jones – Under the Banner of Heaven
Niecy Nash – DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Aubrey Plaza – The White Lotus