2026 Golden Globes Nominations: The Snubs And Surprises

Perhaps the “Wicked” team should have called on Madame Morrible to enact some dark magic on Golden Globe voters before nominations were announced Monday. “Wicked: For Good” wasn’t nominated for best picture or best director, one of several surprising exclusions.

Snubs at the Golden Globes seem even more shocking considering how many people do get nominated. With six nominees in most categories, separate nominations for comedy/musical and drama, television and podcast buckets too, it seems there would be enough to go around. And yet that’s hardly ever the case. Others left out include Joe Rogan, Sydney Sweeney and Gwyneth Paltrow, leaving room for plenty of surprise inclusions.

Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises of the morning.

Yes, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande got in (although Grande’s inclusion in the supporting category is really stretching the limits of the word “supporting”), but this was supposed to be “Wicked’s” year at the Golden Globes. Not only was Jon M. Chu looked over (again) for best director, but the film itself didn’t even get into the Musical/Comedy category for best picture — and this after they so graciously accepted the weird conciliatory box office achievement prize last year. Was it because “Wicked: For Good” wasn’t as well-received as the first? Either way, it teaches awards bodies a lesson about “waiting” to honor two-parters until the second (see also: “Dune”).

Julia Roberts’ turn as a Yale philosophy professor embroiled in a moral conundrum in Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt” was widely praised as a return to form for the star. But the film itself pretty much died on the vine — a critical and box office flop that seemed to indicate that it was out of the awards conversation entirely. And yet, same as it ever was, the Globes can’t resist a high wattage star like Roberts in their midst.

By the same skewed Golden Globes logic, it’s actually kind of shocking that Sydney Sweeney didn’t get a best actress, drama nod. Her transformative turn as a boxer in “Christy” was well-received at the Toronto International Film Festival and had awards prognosticators buzzing. It flopped at the box office, but in the most cynical sense, you’d think the show would want Sweeney, who seemingly can’t help going viral, gracing the red carpet.

This one is more than a little confounding considering Netflix doesn’t report box office results as a company policy. Yes, “KPop Demon Hunters” unofficially topped the domestic box office charts two months after hitting Netflix, but its theatrical footprint was truly limited. There was an awards qualifying run, a weekend sing-along release at the end of August and another over Halloween weekend that did not spark quite as much enthusiasm. Also not included were “A Minecraft Movie,” “Lilo & Stitch” and “Superman,” currently the top three movies of the year at the domestic box office. The math, as they say, isn’t mathing.

And then there is the Chinese animated epic “Ne Zha II” which is actually the biggest movie of the year with over $2 billion earned worldwide, but because it wasn’t a Motion Picture Association movie it’s left off most charts The movie wasn’t among the box office or the animated feature nominees.

This one stings. Here we have an A-lister making a grand return to prestige movies, and somehow there’s no room for Paltrow in the supporting actress category for her fiercely intelligent performance as a faded movie star in “Marty Supreme.” This would have been a win-win for the show — both for the sake of its own legitimacy and red carpet prospects.

“The Joe Rogan Experience” is the most popular podcast of the year and yet somehow was not nominated in the new podcast category. Not only that, but shortlisted political shows including “The Ben Shapiro Show,” “Pod Save America,” “The Megyn Kelly Show,” “The Tucker Carlson Show” and Candace Owens’ podcast were also left off the list.

“The Smashing Machine’s” prospects also seemed to wither with mixed reviews, but Blunt and, less surprisingly, Dwayne Johnson both got through. Blunt is exceedingly well-liked, but the character of Dawn Staples was perhaps not the best showcase for her talents. Also, maybe this should have been Paltrow’s spot?

We need to get Benoit Blanc on this very silly mystery. Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out movie got zero nominations.

The lush HBO period series was completely looked over. Mrs. Russell would not stand for such a slight.

Meanwhile, Katherine LaNasa won the Emmy for her performance as Nurse Dana Evans in “The Pitt” but doesn’t even get a Golden Globe nomination?