'Past Lives,' 'Beef,' 'The Boy and the Heron,' 'Suzume' among nominees for 81st Golden Globes

We woke up at dawn for the 81st Golden Globe nominations announcement held at The Beverly Hilton.

Celine Song's feature directorial debut, "Past Lives," garnered five nominations – Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Performance by A Female Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama for Greta Lee, Best Screenplay-Motion Picture for Celine Song, Best Motion Picture-Non-English Language, and Best Director-Motion Picture for Celine Song. She and Greta Gerwig ("Barbie") were the only two women nominated in the Best Director-Motion Picture category.

The South Korean-Canadian director, screenwriter and executive producer based in the United States reacted to her Golden Globe nomination: "I am thrilled that 'Past Lives' was nominated for five Golden Globes, among nominees whose many films I have admired as a filmgoer all my life — thank you so much for these incredible honors for my debut feature. I spent the morning thanking everyone who worked on the film with me and celebrating with them. I feel especially honored and grateful to be embraced by the film community as a newcomer — I can't begin to express what it means to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

As for the Korean-American actress Greta Lee, she said of her first Golden Globe nomination, "It is a complete and total honor to be recognized by the Golden Globes this morning. This journey, crafted by the genius mind of Celine Song has been the experience of a lifetime. And it's with an overwhelming sense of pride for the movie we got to make with our extraordinary cast and crew that we receive the news of our 'Past Lives' nominations. This is absolutely a dream come true."

"Beef," Korean writer-director Lee Sung Jin's dark comedy about road rage, bagged three Golden Globe nods – Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television for Ali Wong, and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television by Steven Yeun.

Ali Wong and Steven Yeun are both first-time Golden Globe nominees. If Ali Wong wins, she will become the first Asian-American actress to win a Golden Globe for any limited series.

Lee Sung Jin wrote about "Beef": "They say write what you know... So, what did I know while writing 'Beef'? I knew I got into a road rage incident. I knew that Steven Yeun is the best actor of our generation. I knew Ali Wong can make the darkest of material relatable and funny."

He said of his Golden Globe nod, "Thank you to the Golden Globes for recognizing the hard work of our cast and crew. While I wish the nominations were announced at 8 AM Pacific Time, I am beyond honored and thrilled."

Charles Melton, the Korean-American actor who portrayed Joe Yoo in the Todd Haynes drama "May December" starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, was nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture. The 32-year-old actor born in Juneau, Alaska is the youngest in the group of nominees in this category which include heavyweights like Robert De Niro ("Killers of the Flower Moon"), Robert Downey Jr. ("Oppenheimer"), Willem Dafoe ("Poor Things"), Mark Ruffalo ("Poor Things") and Ryan Gosling ("Barbie").

Melton, a first time Golden Globe nominee, said of his nomination: "Making 'May December' was by far the highlight of my career. The experience was pure magic with the most extraordinary film family. I love you all so much. Entering Todd Haynes' world profoundly changed my life and acting opposite Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore was something I could only dream about. Golden Globes, thank you for acknowledging our beautiful movie. It means the world to all of us."

Legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki's animated fantasy movie, "The Boy and The Heron," bagged two Golden Globe nods – Best Motion Picture-Animated and Best Original Score-Motion Picture for Joe Hisaishi.

Aside from the 82-year-old Miyazaki's animation, another Japanese animated movie, "Suzume," a coming-of-age fantasy adventure film from Japanese writer-director-animator Makoto Shinkai, 50, made it to the Golden Globe nominees list. It is also included in the Best Motion Picture-Animated category.

Others included in this category is "Elemental" which also features Filipino-American filmmaker-actor Ronnie Del Carmen who voiced the father Bernie, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" which features the voice of Fil-Am Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy or Spider-Gwen, the Disney movie "Wish," and Universal Pictures' "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

It was a very good year for international films and the Philippines had a record of four Golden Globe entries that included Carl Joseph Papa's "The Missing," Jun Robles Lana's "About Us But Not About Us," Petersen Vargas' "A Very Good Girl," and Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan's "Blue Room."

For the Best Motion Picture-Non-English Language category, the movies that got the Golden Globe nod included "Anatomy of a Fall" (France), "Fallen Leaves" (Finland), "Io Capitano" (Italy), "Past Lives" (USA), "Society of the Snow" (Spain), and "The Zone of Interest" (UK/USA).

Golden Globe president Helen Hoehne opened the nomination announcement. Actor-comedian-TV host Cedric "The Entertainer and actor Wilmer Valderrama ("That '70s Show", "From Dusk till Dawn: The Series") presented the nominees for each of the 27 award categories.

Multi-Emmy Award®-winning producing duo Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment (WCE), who will serve as executive-producing showrunners for the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards, with Weiss also set to direct, were also present.

The 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. Produced and owned by Dick Clark Productions, the Golden Globe Awards has been viewed in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide and is one of the few awards ceremonies to include both motion picture and television achievements.

—MGP, GMA Integrated News