Golden Globes 2026 Nominations: Biggest Snubs and Surprises

Yes, Sinners did well with seven nominations, but perhaps the biggest acting snub of the morning came when Wunmi Mosaku’s name was left of the list for Best Supporting Female Actor in Any Motion Picture. Coming off a Gotham Awards win for her performance and riding the overall wave of love for Ryan Coogler’s provocative blockbuster, Mosaku seemed like a lock, and her omission here feels like it supports the arguments over the years that the Globes have difficulty recognizing great Black performances. (Although Odessa A’zion’s phenomenal turn in Marty Supreme could be a close second in this weird category.) And it’s not like Mosaku missed for a widely-recognized stunner of a performance. Sorry, Emily Blunt fans, but choosing that turn over Mosaku is one of today’s sillier choices.

Is it because it was a “Star Wars show”? That’s the only possible explanation for what many consider the absolute best drama of this year missing out on even a nomination here. Sure, nominating Apple TV’s critical giants Pluribus and Severance makes sense, but these were probably the weakest seasons of Slow Horses and The White Lotus. Diego Luna did get a deserved best actor nomination for his performance as Cassian Andor, but a voting group that has often made unexpected choices, especially in its TV categories, played it shockingly safe this year in Best Television Series, Drama, which meant Disney+ doesn’t get an invite to the party. The Empire wins again.

Over the years, the Golden Globes have clearly prioritized having famous faces to walk the red carpet. And so choosing the relatively unknown star of the incredible Sorry, Baby over people like Laura Dern (Is This Thing On?) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) is a refreshing change of pace. Victor is vulnerable and brilliant in this film, which she also wrote and directed, but it’s not the kind of work the Globes often recognizes. Our only quibble: They could’ve gone one step further. Victor’s script was a true gem — she probably should have been a double nominee.

Double the Richard Linklater! One of the biggest surprises of this Golden Globes morning was the naming of both of the director’s films about artists — his love letter to Jean-Luc Godard in Nouvelle Vague and his profile of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon — in the Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy category. (The latter film also saw a nomination for Ethan Hawke’s wonderful performance.) Both of these films are relatively low-profile compared to snubbed A-list productions like Wicked: For Good or even Jay Kelly, making their inclusion here even more notable. Did Globes voters see themselves in the creatives profiled? Neither title made many pundits’ lists, so seeing both get a nom in the same category is pretty wild.

HBO’s acclaimed new thriller notched a nomination for the excellent Mark Ruffalo, but missed everywhere else, including Best Television Series, Drama and for supporting actors like Tom Pelphrey and Emilia Jones, both of whom turned in true breakthrough performances. What the hell? Again, it feels like the Globes went with the familiar instead of the best in the drama series category, when subpar seasons of Slow Horses and The White Lotus could’ve taken a year off. And all due respect to the great Walton Goggins and Jason Issacs, but one of them deserved a back seat here to let Pelphrey in.

How does one voting body name a performance the best of the year in its category while another doesn’t even nominate it? It’s one of the annual mysteries of awards season as one tries to match up Emmy winners and Golden Globe nominees. And this year, there’s no stranger case than Katherine LaNasa, who joined the entire female cast of best drama nominee The Pitt in being left out of the acting categories. Yes, this show belongs to Noah Wyle, and we love his comeback as much as anyone, but The Pitt is an ensemble affair, and every single one of the women being ignored feels wrong. Part of the reason is the Globes crams mini-series, comedy, and drama together into one supporting-actor category, making real estate harder to find — but then they went and nominated three of the women of The White Lotus! Spread the wealth next year!

The first two Knives Out movies were both nominated for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, and Daniel Craig was nominated for best actor twice. Despite getting universally great reviews — better than the last one, by and large — the third film in the series missed out entirely, not showing up in any categories. We suspect a welcome push to honor more international films (and basically the whole awards-season slate from Neon) led to the demise of Benoit Blanc’s Globe prospects. Someone should start an investigation.

Stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were recognized in the acting categories but the movie they headlined did not show up in Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, a category for which it seemed engineered in a lab. The 2024 Wicked was not only nominated for best picture but won the truly goofy Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award. It shows up again in the latter category this year but missed the more prestigious category for some surprising options like No Other Choice and Nouvelle Vague. Guess this one just isn’t quite as pop-u-lar.

FX had a pretty weak Golden Globes morning, but what else is new? The Globes basically ignored Reservation Dogs through its entire run, and they’re apparently keeping the trend going with Sterlin Harjo’s latest, the critical smash The Lowdown. (For the FX record, Alien: Earth could have dislodged a few of the boring TV choices this year too, but we’re thankful that the phenomenal Dying for Sex couldn’t be ignored.) The Ethan Hawke dramedy has earned nothing but raves and yet doesn’t appear anywhere on the very long nominations list. At least its star got a well-deserved nomination for Blue Moon.

Strange that a voting body that’s been accused of recency bias many a time missed one of the bigger critical darlings that debuted under the wire this year. The Globes love to be first, and they were this year with shows like Pluribus and The Beast in Me, but why dismiss Netflix’s engrossing historical drama? Was the topic of political violence too third-rail for a group that also ignored all conservative podcasts in that inaugural category? How could they look at the truly dramatic beards of Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, and Shea Whigham and simply turn away?