2021 Golden Globe nominations: Here's the scorecard

Feb. 3, 2021 Updated 9:42 AM PT

Netflix once gain has dominated Golden Globe nominations, reflecting another year when the Los Gatos streaming giant flooded the zone with movies and TV shows and competition in the online video market escalated.

Netflix earned a total of 42 nods Wednesday morning, far more than any other distributor this year. The streamer scored 22 nominations for films, including “Mank” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” while securing 20 kudos for series including “The Crown” and “Ozark.”

“Mank,” David Fincher’s black-and-white drama about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, was the most recognized movie, with six nominations, including best drama, actor (Gary Oldman) and director. “Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin’s civil unrest drama, was the runner-up with five, namely best drama, supporting actor (Sacha Baron Cohen) and director.

Streaming shows and movies did well in a year when many people’s in-person entertainment options were limited because of the coronavirus. Theaters were closed in parts of the country for much of the year, studios delayed many of their major releases or sold them to direct-to-consumer apps, and TV viewers continued to abandon linear networks for the a la carte options available online.

Amazon Studios had 10 Globe nominations, including two for Steve McQueen’s anthology series “Small Axe.”

Amazon was the second-most-nominated film distributor, with seven honors, led by “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and Regina King’s feature directorial debut, “One Night in Miami.” The “Borat” sequel is up for three categories: musical or comedy, actor (Baron Cohen, again) and actress (Maria Bakalova in her star-making turn as Borat’s daughter). “One Night in Miami,” a fictional account of the intersection of four Black icons, also earned three nods, including director for King.

“For us to be able to celebrate film at the studio and see our increased investment in original film paying off is really gratifying,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, in an interview.

Disney-owned streaming service Hulu picked up 10 total nominations for its movies and shows, tying Amazon’s tally. In TV, it came in third behind Netflix and HBO, with six nominations for shows including “The Great” and “Normal People.” Hulu’s four film nominations were comprised of two for “Palm Springs” (shared with indies distributor Neon) and two for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” starring Andra Day as the jazz singer. Hulu acquired the music biopic from Paramount Pictures.

The traditional indie studios were represented by Focus Features, Searchlight Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics, which received five film nominations apiece. “Promising Young Woman” (Focus), “Nomadland” (Searchlight) and “The Father” (Sony) each got multiple nods. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures also received five nominations for its movies, including two for the filmed version of the musical “Hamilton,” though that movie was released straight to Disney+.

In TV, awards season stalwart HBO came in second to Netflix, with seven nominations for its programming including the social horror-fantasy drama “Lovecraft Country” and limited series “The Undoing,” starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.

As streaming veterans Netflix, Amazon and Hulu cleaned up, newer digital services also managed to make their mark.

Apple TV+’s feel-good comedy “Ted Lasso” was honored in two categories: best musical or comedy and actor (Jason Sudeikis). The Cupertino tech titan’s original films arm received its first-ever Golden Globe nominations, including animated picture for “Wolfwalkers” and Bill Murray’s supporting role in Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks.”

HBO Max, launched by HBO and Warner Bros. parent company WarnerMedia last year, made its presence in the streaming wars known with two nominations for “The Flight Attendant.”

Disney+ secured a best drama series nomination for “The Mandalorian,” its hit bounty-hunter “Star Wars” spinoff.

Even Shudder, the horror niche subscription offering owned by AMC Networks, was able to nab a nomination for “La Llorona,” the Guatemalan-French movie up for best foreign language film.

The Golden Globes, given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., can boost the prestige of the nominated shows, movies, networks and studios, and they can draw more viewers to little-known productions.

Netflix again managed to swamp the competition in terms of the nominations in large part because it produces so many shows and movies. The company is planning to release 70 movies this year — or at least a movie a week — far more than any other company plans to distribute.

With that kind of volume, it would be surprising if Netflix didn’t pick up a plurality of nominations.

The COVID-19 pandemic handed Netflix another advantage as traditional studios mostly held back their biggest and best movies while theaters remained closed in key markets such as Los Angeles and New York.

But being nominated is one thing; winning is another. Netflix scored the most nominations for last year’s Golden Globes with 34 nods for its movies and shows including “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story,” as well as series such as “The Crown.” But it was prestige TV stalwart HBO that ended up having the winningest night in the television categories, while Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures won big in film.

The 78th Golden Globes ceremony is scheduled to air Sunday, Feb. 28, on NBC, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Here’s how the studios and networks stack up:

Film distributors

Netflix 22
Amazon Studios 7
Focus Features 5
Searchlight Pictures 5
Sony Pictures Classics 5
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures 5
Warner Bros. Pictures 4
Universal Pictures 3
Hulu 2
Neon / Hulu 2
STXfilms 2
Vertical Entertainment / IMAX 2
A24 1
Apple / A24 1
Apple / GKIDS 1
Magnolia Pictures 1
Samuel Goldwyn Films 1
Shudder 1