From Wicked to Sydney Sweeney, These Are the Biggest Snubs and Surprises From the Golden Globes Nominations 2026

The Golden Globes nominations 2026 on Monday morning included fewer “where did that come from?” moments than we’ve seen from this show in the past, probably due in part to the establishment of a more legitimate and diversified voting body. This year’s clear front-runner, One Battle After Another, led the film categories with nine nominations, followed by Sentimental Value and Sinners.

There were a few interesting developments, however. Globes voters, who are journalists mostly based outside of the US, did lean more international than they ever have before, giving love to several foreign language films even outside of the non-English-language race. This led to the crowning of a new distributor, Neon, leading the nominations tally.

Still, the old ways of the Globes peeked through sometimes—as with the inclusion of movie star Julia Roberts, whose film After the Hunt has lost steam otherwise as a contender. And the Globes will never, ever pass up a chance to nominate Emily Blunt. Below, Vanity Fair sums up more of the morning’s biggest surprises and snubs.

In just a few years, Neon has carved out a real niche by supporting international features. Last year, it took the Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Anora, all the way to a best-picture win at the Oscars. Still, it comes as a shock this year that the distributor leads all film nominations with 21 total, besting bigger studios like Warner Bros., Netflix, and Universal. That’s thanks to Neon’s strong international slate, which includes this year’s Palme winner, It Was Just an Accident, along with Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, and No Other Choice. —Rebecca Ford

This year’s most surprising snub goes to Wicked: For Good, which was noticeably left off the list for best musical or comedy film. The first installment of the franchise landed a nomination in that category (and won in the cinematic-achievement category), but For Good didn’t make the cut. Instead, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague earned a surprise nom. But the good news is that For Good actually landed more nominations than the first film did at the Globes, earning noms for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande again and nabbing two original-song nods as well. —R.F.

One of the nominees in this category hasn’t even been released in theaters yet: Avatar: Fire and Ash. Another was never intended to be released in theaters at all: KPop Demon Hunters. Granted, Netflix did briefly release Demon Hunters in theaters as a stunt in August, and again over Halloween weekend. But over the course of its short history, this category has been reserved for films with full theatrical releases. Perhaps what’s more confusing is preemptively recognizing Avatar for box-office achievement; do Globes voters have access to a time machine? This award has always been wonky, but this is the first time Globes voters have hinted that they have the power to tell the future. —John Ross

Some things never change. Even with the makeover the Golden Globes got in recent years, diversifying and expanding its membership, this group can’t resist a movie star. So of course they nominated Julia Roberts again this year. Her nom for After the Hunt is her 11th at the Globes. But many of the other nominees in the actress-in-a-drama category are surprises, including Eva Victor for Sorry, Baby and Jennifer Lawrence for Die My Love. Both performances are incredibly strong, but aren’t considered locks for best-actress Oscar nominations. Globes voters have more room to play, since their actress category is split into drama and comedy divisions—but maybe these pleasant surprises mean a nice jolt to the upcoming Oscar campaigns. —R.F.

The first Knives Out film earned three nominations at the Globes and the second film, Glass Onion, earned two, including for best motion picture—musical or comedy. But the third film, Wake Up Dead Man, was completely snubbed—a surprising turn of events for a well-received crowd-pleaser. Josh O’Connor and Glenn Close both delivered strong, charming performances, and should have been under serious consideration by this group of voters, who often leave room for those sorts of fun ensemble movies. Perhaps the race is too crowded this year with nonsequels, and the voters turned towards newer, shinier projects. —R.F.

The days of international features being siloed to only that category are now officially over. The Globes voter body has always been mostly located outside of the US, but this is the first year their support for international features has been overwhelming. Half of the slots in the category for best drama film went to international features: The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and It Was Just an Accident. The Secret Agent star Wagner Moura and No Other Choice’s Lee Byung-Hun both landed individual acting nominations, and Sirāt’s score landed a nomination—all of which would have been unimaginable possibilities just a few years ago. —R.F.

It was no surprise that Jacob Elordi and Amanda Seyfried landed acting nominations for their much-lauded performances in Frankenstein and The Testament of Ann Lee, respectively. What was surprising is they both also nabbed noms on the TV side too. Elordi starred in the epic WWII miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which earned him a nomination for actor in a limited or anthology series. Seyfried earned a nomination for Long Bright River, a Peacock limited series that hadn’t gotten a lot of awards attention up until this point. Because neither of these series were popular at the time of their release, we have to assume there might have been a little bit of a bump to their profiles thanks to these two stars’ strong work in film this year. Either way, Elordi and Seyfried have twice as much to celebrate today. —R.F.

Wunmi Mosaku recently won a Gotham Award for best supporting actress and has been listed as a potential Oscar nominee on many awards prognosticators’ lists throughout the season. But while Sinners performed well at the Golden Globes this morning, Mosaku did not make the cut for supporting actress. She is a standout in the film’s ensemble and has been making the rounds this season at various awards stops. Momentum was building for her campaign, especially off the Gotham win—but this omission is definitely a setback. —J.R.

Never underestimate the power of Emily Blunt. She was deservedly nominated for a Golden Globe back in 2007 for her breakout role in The Devil Wears Prada. In 2019, she won the Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in A Quiet Place, which was one of the big surprises of the night. Voters just love her. Her role as Dawn Staples, Dwayne Johnson’s long-suffering girlfriend in The Smashing Machine, was considered a little too generic for awards contention; the character is a common trope in films that’s often been parodied, including via Heidi Gardner’s recurring character of Every Boxer’s Girlfriend on Saturday Night Live. But Blunt makes the most of the part—and as I wrote earlier, never underestimate her power over an awards voting body. They love her. —J.R.

Glen Powell’s nomination for Chad Powers reminds me of the old Golden Globes television nominations, where if you were in a new television show with any sort of profile, you were guaranteed a nod. Chad Powers never really hit with critics or broke through with audiences in a big way. The show, which has a Mrs. Doubtfire–like concept focused on Powell pretending to be a college football player, never fully realizes its potential. But Powell is a star and the show was picked up for a second season, so there must have been enough love to snag him a nomination alongside the usual recipients in this category, like Jeremy Allen White, Martin Short, and Steve Martin. —J.R.

Marty Supreme received a nomination for best musical or comedy, and of course Timothée Chalamet got a nod for his performance. But Josh Safdie was left off of the director’s list for a film that is singularly helmed by an auteur with a very distinct style and signature frenetic pacing Those are usually the right ingredients for a director to receive a nomination—but this year, it still wasn’t enough for Safdie, which only proves how competitive the directors’ race is. —J.R.

We expected one demon-centered animated film to show up in the animation category. Instead, we got two. Along with the Netflix juggernaut Kpop Demon Hunters, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba—the Movie: Infinity Castle also landed among the six nominees. The Japanese anime film was a box-office behemoth, earning nearly $770 million worldwide and breaking all sorts of records, so it should have never been underestimated. But it hadn’t been considered one of the bigger contenders for animation. —R.F.

’Twas a jeans commercial that killed the campaign. Sydney Sweeney, who is excellent in the independent film Christy, hasn’t been able to escape the controversy surrounding her American Eagle jeans commercial. The film fumbled at the box office, and this morning she didn’t receive a nomination in the drama-actress category—even though it was left pretty open due to many of the front-runners being placed in the comedy or musical category, including Cynthia Erivo, Amanda Seyfried, and Emma Stone. Not getting a Globe nomination will make it even more difficult for Sweeney’s campaign to continue further in this season. —J.R.