Golden Globes nominations 2020: Netflix dominates in film and TV

It was just five years ago that Netflix edged into the Golden Globes with its first award, for the political television drama House of Cards.

Yesterday the US streaming giant demonstrated just how far it has come by scoring 34 nominations, dominating both the fields of film and TV and leaving its rivals trailing.

Three of the five best picture nominees are from Netflix: The Irishman, Marriage Story and The Two Popes. The company has stuck to its model of giving each a cursory cinema release in order to make them eligible for awards, before making them available to stream at home.

Along with the new Eddie Murphy vehicle, Dolemite Is My Name, the trio of films gave Netflix 17 film nominations - more than twice its nearest rival, Sony Pictures.

The highest number of nominations went to Marriage Story, a divorce drama starring Michelle Williams and Adam Driver.

In the television categories, Netflix also had 17 nominations. They included four for The Crown: best television series, best actress for Olivia Colman as the Queen, best actor for Tobias Menzies as the Duke of Edinburgh and best supporting actress for Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret.

Viewers have been divided over whether the all-new cast of this third series of The Crown is superior to that of series one and two. Golden Globes voters seem to think so, as Claire Foy’s performance as the Queen was the only one to be recognised in previous years.

Other Netflix dramas to feature on the shortlist are The Kominsky Method, The Politician and Unbelievable.

The company has made no secret of the fact that it is spending its way to success - it is expected to spend around $15 billion on content this year, almost five times the BBC’s budget.

Reed Hastings, the Netflix CEO, told the Telegraph earlier this year: “This is what makes our competitors crazy, that we have that money to spend and we’re doing this in a big way. But it makes our customers happy, because there’s variety today, and more variety coming. We’re definitely shaking things up.”

Last year, BBC dramas Bodyguard and A Very English Scandal were Golden Globe winners. This year the only BBC nominees are Fleabag, which first appeared on the digital channel BBC Three and is now on Amazon Prime Video, and Killing Eve, another Phoebe Waller-Bridge show which made its debut on BBC America.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her Fleabag co-star, Andrew Scott, were nominated in acting categories, alongside Jodie Comer for Killing Eve.

Other British contenders include Dame Helen Mirren for her performance in Catherine the Great, Taron Egerton for his role as Elton John in Rocketman, Brian Cox for succession and Dame Emma Thompson for Late Night.