Half of the six nominees for best actor in a drama motion picture at the 2024 Golden Globes are Irish. Andrew Scott is up for his turn as a troubled gay writer in Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers. Barry Keoghan is mentioned as disrupter of the rich in Emerald Fennell’s saucy Saltburn. Cork’s own Cillian Murphy must count as favourite for his turn as the eponymous nuclear physicist in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

There was further good news for the domestic industry with Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, produced by Dublin’s Element Pictures, receiving a whopping seven nominations. Veteran Irish producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe will be particularly happy to see the film – a wild feminist variation on themes from Frankenstein – compete for best film (comedy or musical).

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, the most successful ever film at the Irish box office, tops the chart with nine mentions. Oppenheimer follows with eight nominations.

The Golden Globes has a peculiar history. Presented for many year by the controversy-stricken Hollywood Foreign Press Association, an intimate body of journalists, the awards were taken over last year by Dick Clark Productions as a for-profit operation. Despite often eccentric decisions, the competition has survived as the glossiest precursor to the Academy Awards. Now emerging from an expanded voting body, the nominations give some indication of how the Oscar winds are blowing.

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Barbie, Oppenheimer, Poor Things and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon have all done as well as expected. When it was announced that Gerwig was to direct the glossy doll flick, some rolled their eyes, but she ended up delivering a clever satire that topped the end-of-year world box office. Margot Robbie looks like favourite here for best actress (musical or comedy) but, at the Oscars, where no such divide between genres exists, she will struggle to get past Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon and Carey Mulligan for Maestro, both up for best actor (drama) at the Globes.

Barbie profited from the symbiotic relationship with Oppenheimer that spawned the “Barbenheimer” portmanteau. Nolan’s film looks slight favourite for best drama, though Killers of the Flower Moon will give it a fight. Two (maybe three) films not principally in the English language make it into best drama. Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a challenging study of Auschwitz, looks strong after a best picture win from the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle on Sunday evening. Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, a French courtroom drama, continues to impress after winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Celine Song’s Past Lives, a US film featuring much dialogue in Korean, joins those two films in both the drama and the non-English-language feature races.

Poor Things, based on an acclaimed novel by the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, marks the fourth collaboration between Element and Lanthimos after The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Favourite. Emma Stone, nominated as best actress in a comedy or musical, stars as a woman revivified, after taking her own life, by an eccentric scientist in a stylised version of 19th century London. The film looked destined for further awards success after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival last September. Poor Things opens in Ireland next month.

The success for Scott, Keoghan and Murphy continues an extraordinary run for Irish talent at the big US awards. Earlier this year a quarter of the acting nominees at the Oscars – among them Keoghan for The Banshees of Inisherin – were Irish. Scott has been receiving raves since All of Us Strangers debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in early autumn. The lavish Saltburn, featuring Keoghan as an ordinary Liverpudlian set loose on the aristocracy, has been one of the most hotly debated films of the season.

[ The best and worst films of 2023 – in reverse orderOpens in new window ]

Cedric the Entertainer and Wilmer Valderrama had barely finished announcing the nominations (as ever, hours before sun-up in LA) when chatter began about perceived “snubs”. The biggest surprise was no place in best picture (musical or comedy) for the musical version of The Color Purple. America Ferrera also seemed a likely nominee in best supporting actress or Barbie but, even with the categories expanded from five to six slots, she was unlucky.

Succession dominated the TV section, trousering nine nominations, with The Bear and Only Murders in the Building securing four each. The newly minted Globe for “cinematic and box office achievement” continues to baffle awards watchers. Perhaps some explanation will come when the Globes are handed out on January 7th.

Nominations for the 2024 Golden Globes

Film categories

Best Motion Picture – Drama

• Anatomy of a Fall
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Maestro
• Oppenheimer
• Past Lives
• The Zone of Interest

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

• Air
• American Fiction
• Barbie
• The Holdovers
• May December
• Poor Things

Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language

• Anatomy of a Fall
• Fallen Leaves
• Io Capitano
• Past Lives
• Society of the Snow
• The Zone of Interest

Best Motion Picture – Animated

• The Boy and the Heron
• Elemental
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• Suzume
• Wish

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

• Barbie
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
• Oppenheimer
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Best Director – Motion Picture

• Bradley Cooper, Maestro
• Greta Gerwig, Barbie
• Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
• Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
• Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Celine Song, Past Lives

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture

• Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
• Tony McNamara, Poor Things
• Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
• Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Celine Song, Past Lives
• Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

• Bradley Cooper, Maestro
• Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Colman Domingo, Rustin
• Barry Keoghan, Saltburn
• Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
• Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

• Annette Bening, Nyad
• Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
• Greta Lee, Past Lives
• Carey Mulligan, Maestro
• Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

• Nicolas Cage, Dream Scenario
• Timothée Chalamet, Wonka
• Matt Damon, Air
• Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
• Joaquin Phoenix, Beau Is Afraid
• Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

• Fantasia Barrino, The Color Purple
• Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings
• Natalie Portman, May December
• Alma Pöysti, Fallen Leaves
• Margot Robbie, Barbie
• Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

• Willem Dafoe, Poor Things
• Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
• Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer
• Ryan Gosling, Barbie
• Charles Melton, May December
• Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

• Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
• Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
• Jodie Foster, Nyad
• Julianne Moore, May December
• Rosamund Pike, Saltburn
• Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

• Poor Things
• Oppenheimer
• The Boy and the Heron
• The Zone of Interest
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

• “Addicted to Romance,” She Came to Me
• “Dance the Night,” Barbie
• “I’m Just Ken,” Barbie
• “Peaches,” The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• “Road to Freedom,” Rustin
• “What Was I Made For?,” Barbie

Television categories

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

• Abbott Elementary
• Barry
• The Bear
• Jury Duty
• Only Murders in the Building
• Ted Lasso

Best Television Series – Drama

• 1923
• The Crown
• The Diplomat
• The Morning Show
• Succession

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama

• Brian Cox, Succession
• Kieran Culkin, Succession
• Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
• Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
• Jeremy Strong, Succession
• Dominic West, The Crown

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama

• Helen Mirren, 1923
• Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
• Keri Russell, The Diplomat
• Sarah Snook, Succession
• Imelda Staunton, The Crown
• Emma Stone, The Curse

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

• Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
• Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face
• Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
• Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building
• Elle Fanning, The Great

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

• Bill Hader, Barry
• Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building
• Jason Segel, Shrinking
• Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
• Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso
• Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Television Series

• Billy Crudup, The Morning Show
• Matthew Macfadyen, Succession
• James Marsden, Jury Duty
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear
• Alan Ruck, Succession
• Alexander Skarsgård, Succession

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Television Series

• Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown
• Abby Elliott, The Bear
• Christina Ricci, Yellowjackets
• J Smith Cameron, Succession
• Meryl Streep, Only Murders in the Building
• Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• All the Light We Cannot See
• Beef
• Daisy Jones & the Six
• Fargo
• Fellow Travelers
• Lessons in Chemistry

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• Matt Bomer, Fellow Travelers
• Sam Claflin, Daisy Jones & the Six
• Jon Hamm, Fargo
• Woody Harrelson, White House Plumbers
• David Oyelowo, Lawmen: Bass Reeves
• Steven Yeun, Beef

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• Riley Keough, Daisy Jones & the Six
• Brie Larson, Lessons in Chemistry
• Elizabeth Olsen, Love & Death
• Juno Temple, Fargo
• Rachel Weisz, Dead Ringers
• Ali Wong, Beef

Best Stand-Up Comedian on Television

• Ricky Gervais
• Trevor Noah
• Chris Rock
• Amy Schumer
• Sarah Silverman
• Wanda Sykes