Golden Globes 2026 Nominations Bring Big Wins and Big Surprises

The Golden Globes race is officially on. Early this morning, the nominees for the 83rd Golden Globe Awards were announced, and the list is packed with powerhouse studios, streaming giants, and a few head-scratching surprises. Netflix, Neon, Warner Bros, HBO, Apple, and Hulu all walked away with major bragging rights, setting the stage for a lively awards season.

Film fans quickly noticed a clear frontrunner. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another led all movies with nine nominations. Close behind were John M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good and Michael B. Jordan’s Sinners, both earning multiple nods and strong momentum going into January.

The best motion picture drama category includes Frankenstein, Hamnet, It Was Just An Accident, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and Sinners. On the musical or comedy side, voters nominated Blue Moon, Bugonia, Marty Supreme, No Other Choice, Nouvelle Vague, and One Battle After Another.

The best director race is also stacked. The nominees are Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, Guillermo Del Toro, Jafar Panahi, Chloe Zhao, and Joachim Trier. Each brings a very different style to the table, making this one of the most competitive director lineups in years.

After Warner Bros’ One Battle scored a wave of critics' Best Picture wins this past week, Neon’s Sentimental Value followed closely with eight nominations. Warner Bro. s’ Sinners earned seven, while Focus Features’ Hamnet picked up six.

On the TV side, The White Lotus led the pack with six nominations. Adolescence followed with five, while Severance and Only Murders in the Building earned four each.

The best TV drama category includes The Diplomat, The Pitt, Pluribus, Severance, Slow Horses, and The White Lotus. For musical or comedy series, the nominees are Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Hacks, Nobody Wants This, Only Murders In The Building, and The Studio.

It was a particularly strong morning for Netflix and Neon, which collected a large share of the nominations between them. On the flip side, Wicked: For Good, missing the best film category, stood out as one of the biggest surprises of the day.

Several high-profile films were completely shut out, including Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Player, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House Of Dynamite, and Sydney Sweeney starring in Christy. In television, Stranger Things, Landman, The Paper, Dope Thief, I Love LA, and Sirens were all left without any nominations.

With nine nominations, One Battle After Another now ties Barbie and Cabaret as the third-most nominated film ever at the Globes. Only Emilia Pérez, with 10 nominations, and Nashville, with 11, rank higher. This year’s next top contenders were Sentimental Value with eight nominations and Sinners with seven.

Amanda Seyfried, Jacob Elordi, and Jeremy Allen White each earned two acting nominations. Chloé Zhao also made history by joining Barbra Streisand, Jane Campion, and Kathryn Bigelow as the only female directors to earn two Golden Globe nominations.

Neon led all film distributors with 21 nominations, an impressive showing in a crowded field. Warner Bros followed with 16, and Netflix earned 13 in film categories. On the television side, Netflix dominated with 22 studio nominations, giving it a total of 35 across film and TV. Warner Bros finished just behind with a combined total of 31.

Distributor-producer Willa and the movie Sorry, Baby also earned nominations among much larger competition. Meanwhile, growing distributor Mubi, which had six Globes nominations last year for Die My Love, managed only one this year.

Netflix hit K-Pop Demon Hunters received three nominations, but its spot in the Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category may frustrate theater owners since it was made for streaming. Another unusual pick in that same category was Avatar: Fire And Ash, even though the film has not opened yet.

International projects also had a very strong showing. Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, It Was Just An Accident, No Other Choice, and The Narrow Road To The Deep North all represented content created outside the United States.

Winners will be announced Sunday, January 11, on CBS and Paramount+ during a ceremony hosted for a second year by Nikki Glaser. With streaming platforms, global films, and record-chasing contenders all in the mix, this year’s Golden Globes promise plenty of excitement and a few more surprises before the night is over.

Take a look at the full list of nominations here.