Indie Studio Neon Tops Golden Globe Film Nominations With 21 Nods

Indie film studio Neon leads this year’s Golden Globe film nominations with 21 nods — the most the company has ever received and the most from any single studio — and is competing with six non-English language films. The slate includes Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which earned eight nominations including four acting nods; Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, with four nominations including best picture (drama) and best director; Brazil’s Secret Agent and South Korea’s No Other Choice, each with three nominations; and two French films, Sirat and the animated Arco.

The movies, from Norway, Iran, Brazil, South Korea and France, explore themes such as family dysfunction, torture, authoritarianism and corporate greed. “These are the best films of the year, foreign or otherwise,” Neon’s chief executive, Tom Quinn, said. Neon, founded in 2017, previously released Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which won the 2020 best picture Oscar, and last year’s best picture winner, Sean Baker’s Anora.

The company has followed a slow, roll-out release strategy that it used for those films to maximise awards publicity. It Was Just an Accident debuted in October and has hit streaming but, according to Quinn, is only halfway through its box office run and has grossed $1.7 million; Sentimental Value debuted in November and has grossed $4 million; and No Other Choice opened on Christmas and has grossed $2 million on 45 screens.

Key Topics

Culture, Neon, Golden Globes, Sentimental Value, No Other Choice, Jafar Panahi