This morning’s Golden Globe nominations were mostly about Fox Searchlight and 20th Century Fox. While Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water took seven noms and Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri received six, Big Fox’s The Post and The Greatest Showman tallied 12.

Yeah, I know — The Greatest Showman? Michael Gracey and Hugh Jackman‘s musical about P.T. Barnum hasn’t screened for non-Golden Globe members like myself, and is generally presumed sight unseen to be something of an odd duck — a big-screen musical for musical fans but perhaps not for discriminating types. Who knows?

In my realm there’s only been that March ’17 Cinemacon presentation plus a recent “listening party” at the Four Seasons. The film pops on 12.20 or nine days hence, and I’ve yet to receive a screening invitation. Update: Fox screened it twice yesterday at the AMC Century City, but they didn’t think to invite me. Thanks!

Theatrically speaking and for the most part, the 2017-18 Golden Globe Award nominations delivered the expected.

The five Best Picture, Drama nominees — Call Me by Your Name, Dunkirk, The Post, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — fell right into place, and four out of the five nominees for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical — The Disaster Artist, Get Out, I, Tonya, Lady Bird — made basic sense.

Lady Bird‘s Greta Gerwig and Call Me By Your Name‘s Luca Guadagnino got shafted in the Best Director category. While Guadagnino and Gerwig arguably deserved more Best Director recognition this year than their competitors as their films were the most buoyant and self-owned and fully felt, the HFPA snubbed them. Brilliant!

Get Out‘s Jordan Peele didn’t make it either, but I’m okay with that.

The five Golden Globe nominees for Best Director are Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Steven Spielberg (The Post) and…wait, Ridley Scott for All The Money in the World?

Scott’s period kidnapping drama won’t begin screening for regular press until this Friday, but the HFPA was shown a close-to-finalized version last Monday (12.4). It seems as if the HFPA wanted to do Sony Pictures a solid for this special access, and to tribute Scott for his ultra-fast work in recently re-shooting Kevin Spacey‘s scenes as J. Paul Getty with Christopher Plummer.

Plummer, by the way, nabbed a Best Supporting Actor nom for this last-minute performance. The other four nominees are Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project), Armie Hammer (Call Me by Your Name), Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water) and Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

The race is between Dafoe and Rockwell, with Dafoe favored.

For some perspective on the wisdom of the HFPA, consider that the unquestionably brilliant Call My By Your Name nabbed three nominations, and that this was the same tally for the unseen and probably negligible The Greatest Showman. All the Money in the World, another unseen which may turn out to be quite good, also managed three noms. The slight surprise among the Best Actor, Drama nominees was the deserved inclusion of Roman J. Israel‘s Denzel Washington. The other four nominees, of course, are Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name), Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread), Tom Hanks (The Post) and Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour).

The choice is basically between Oldman and Chalamet.

The Best Actress, Drana nominees included two modest surprises — Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game) and Michelle Williams (All the Money in the World). The other three are Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Meryl Streep (The Post).

Nominees for Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Steve Carell (Battle of the Sexes), Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver), James Franco (The Disaster Artist), Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman) and Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out).

Hiyo, give it to Franco!

Nominees for Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Judi Dench (Victoria & Abdul), Helen Mirren (The Leisure Seeker), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Saoirse Ronan (LadyBird), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes).

Ronan takes this in a walk.

Nominees for Best Supporting Actress: Mary J. Blige (Mudbound), Hong Chau (Downsizing), Allison Janney (I, Tonya), Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird), Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water).

It’s between Metcalf and Janney with Metcalf favored.