Take a look at the nominees in the best film categories and then at those shortlisted in the non-English language category, and you’ll notice quite a few duplications.
Of the six films nominated in the non-English language group, three are up for best drama – It Was Just An Accident, The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value – and one, No Other Choice, features among the musical or comedy collective.
Sirat and The Voice Of Hind Rajab make up the non-English language nominees.
Though recent years have seen more breakthroughs, thanks to films such as Parasite, Roma and Anatomy Of A Fall, such a wide crossover is something that simply would not have happened a few years ago, and shows how non-English language films, as with music, are becoming more and more popular – as well as perhaps the push for more diversity from the new Golden Globes organising body.
It Was Just An Accident is an Iranian revenge thriller by director Jafar Panahi, who was barred from filmmaking for 15 years by the government in Tehran and has been jailed several times in his country.
Telling the story of a garage owner who rashly kidnaps a one-legged man who looks like his prison torturer, the film won the Palme d’Or, the top prize, at Cannes in May last year.
It is up for four awards in total, with Panahi also nominated for best director and best screenplay.
The Secret Agent follows an unassuming scientist and widowed father who becomes a target of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s – not because he is an activist or revolutionary, but because he stands up to a business owner with ties to the regime.
Directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho, the film also picked up awards at Cannes – best director and best actor for its star, Wagner Moura.
The film is up for three Golden Globes in total, with Moura again receiving a nod in the best actor in a drama category.
Norwegian film Sentimental Value has eight Golden Globe nominations, second only to One Battle After Another’s nine. These include best actress in a drama for Renate Reinsve, best supporting actress for both Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, best supporting actor for Stellan Skarsgard, best director for Joachim Trier, and best screenplay for Trier and Eskil Vogt.
Skarsgard plays the venerated filmmaker Gustav Borg, who comes back into the lives of his daughters Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Lilleaas) after years of being estranged, following the death of his ex-wife.
No Other Choice follows protagonist You Man-su (played by Lee Byung-Hun), who lives with his wife, two children and two golden retrievers in a nice house in the woods. He has a good life – that is, until his fortunes turn. After 25 years at a paper mill, Man-su is laid off, and desperation begins to set in.
The film is up for three awards in total, including best actor in a musical or comedy for Lee.
