Per Matt
The nominations have been announced for the 2016 Golden Globes awards ceremony and surprisingly, geek culture was embraced with the list. Here’s a quick look at the potential award winners, from a geek’s perspective.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is a small, secretive group representing journalists from 55 countries that presents the Golden Globes, which awards the best in the fields of both television and motion pictures. One of the biggest winners from yesterday’s announcement was Carol, a soon-to-be-released film about a lesbian love affair in 1950s New York, which led all nominations with five, including noms for best drama, best actress (Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara), best director (Todd Haynes) and best original score.

Returning for the hat trick, Ricky Gervais (who always kills it!) will host the 73rd Annual Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016. Many upcoming movies on the list have either had limited releases or will soon be released later this year. For many years, the HFPA has had a penchant for inviting past Golden Globe and Oscar winners and schmoozing big-name talent with nominations (many times undeserved) in order to boost the ratings of the awards show.

While I was thrilled that The Martian received a small slice of due respect, it carries with it the most controversy, as the movie was included in the Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy category. The Martian was a great sci-fi drama and made major bank at the global box office, but it was definitely neither a musical, nor comedy. Its inclusion there feels like an abstract invitation for big-named talent to appear on the show (and basically win the award for an incorrect category). Sadly, throughout the years, many nominations have received incorrect-category awards in the past and will seemingly continue to do so in the future without any remorse by the HFPA. Even though it feels like a sham at times, an award’s an award. Anything to boost a project’s overall revenue is a good thing, right?

Scanning the nominations, computer programmers and hackers get their due, along with a little fantasy and science fact thrown into the mix, as well. Represented genre films The Hateful Eight, The Revenant, Ex Machina, Steve Jobs, Spectre, Mad Max: Fury Road and Furious 7 join genre TV series Mr. Robot, Scream Queens, Fargo and Penny Dreadful on the big list. With the past season of Game of Thrones being its biggest and the best one so far, it would only be fitting for the franchise to win its Best TV Series category this year. Jon Snow would definitely approve this gesture… it would almost make his character’s death a tad more tolerable (or is he actually dead?).

Quite a few great actors are in the mix here, many of which have had some success portraying superheroes and villains onscreen (Fox’s former and current X-Men franchise is well represented here). While the movie categories seem to get most of the media’s attention, the television categories seem to have the biggest appeal for me, where a plethora of big-name talent prepare for a duel to the death. Lady Gaga. Queen Latifah. Christian Slater. Patrick Wilson. Kirsten Dunst. Rob Lowe. Jamie Lee Curtis. Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Idris Elba. Eva Green. Viola Davis. Liev Schreiber. Jeffrey Tambor. Patrick Stewart. So much talent fighting for only a few awards!

There will be lots of storylines to watch when the awards show airs. Stay tuned for more Globes speculation and our predictions for the show in January.

Here’s the complete list of nominations:

Best Actor in a Series, Limited-Series or TV Movie
– Idris Elba – Luther
– Oscar Isaac – Show Me a Hero
– David Oyelowo – Nightingale
– Mark Rylance – Wolf Hall
– Patrick Wilson – Fargo

Best Actress in a Series, Limited-Series or TV Movie
– Lady Gaga – American Horror Story: Hotel
– Sarah Hay – Flesh and Bone
– Felicity Huffman – American Crime
– Queen Latifah – Bessie
– Kirsten Dunst – Fargo

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited-Series or TV Movie
– Alan Cumming – The Good Wife
– Damian Lewis – Wolf Hall
– Ben Mendelsohn – Bloodline
– Tobias Menzies – Outlander
– Christian Slater – Mr. Robot

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited-Series, or TV Movie
– Uzo Aduba – Orange Is the New Black
– Joanne Froggatt – Downton Abbey
– Regina King – American Crime
– Maura Tierney – The Affair
– Judith Light – Transparent

Best TV Movie or Limited-Series
– American Crime
– American Horror Story: Hotel
– Fargo
– Flesh and Bone
– Wolf Hall

Best TV Series, Comedy
– Casual
– Mozart in the Jungle
– Orange Is the New Black
– Silicon Valley
– Transparent
– Veep

Best TV Series, Drama
– Empire
– Game of Thrones
– Mr. Robot
– Narcos
– Outlander

Best Actor in a TV Series, Comedy
– Aziz Ansari – Master of None
– Gael Garcia Bernal – Mozart in the Jungle
– Rob Lowe – The Grinder
– Patrick Stewart – Blunt Talk
– Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent

Best Actress in a TV Series, Comedy
– Rachel Bloom – Crazy Ex Girlfriend
– Jamie Lee Curtis – Scream Queens
– Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Veep
– Gina Rodriguez – Jane the Virgin
– Lily Tomlin – Grace and Frankie

Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama
– Caitriona Balfe – Outlander
– Viola Davis – How to Get Away with Murder
– Eva Green – Penny Dreadful
– Taraji P. Henson – Empire
– Robin Wright – House of Cards

Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama
– Jon Hamm – Mad Men
– Rami Malek – Mr. Robot
– Wagner Moura – Nacros
– Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul
– Liev Schreiber – Ray Donovan

Best Original Score – Motion Picture
– Carol
– The Danish Girl
– The Revenant
– Inside Out
– Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Original Song – Motion Picture
– Love Me Like You Do – 50 Shades of Grey
– One Kind of Love – Love and Mercy
– See You Again – Furious 7
– Simple Song. No. 3 – Youth
– Writings on the Wall – Spectre

Best Foreign Language Film
– Son of Saul
– Mustang
– The Fencer
– Brand New Testament
– The Club

Best Animated Feature Film
– Anomalisa
– The Good Dinosaur
– Inside Out
– The Peanuts Movie
– Shaun and the Sheep Movie

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
– Emma Donoghue – Room
– Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer – Spotlight
– Charles Randolph & Adam McKay – The Big Short
– Aaron Sorkin – Steve Jobs
– Quentin Tarantino – The Hateful Eight

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
– Brian Cranston – Trumbo
– Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
– Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs
– Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl
– Will Smith – Concussion

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
– Cate Blanchett – Carol
– Brie Larson – Broom
– Rooney Mara – Carol
– Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn
– Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
– Paul Dano – Love and Mercy
– Idris Elba – Beasts of No Nation
– Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies
– Michael Shannon – 99 Homes
– Sylvester Stallone – Creed

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
– Jane Fonda – Youth
– Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight
– Helen Mirren – Trumbo
– Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina
– Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
– Christian Bale – The Big Short
– Steve Carell – The Big Short
– Matt Damon -The Martian
– Al Pacino – Danny Collins
– Mark Ruffalo – Infinitely Polar Bear

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
– Jennifer Lawrence – Joy
– Melissa McCarthy – Spy
– Amy Schumer – Trainwreck
– Maggie Smith – The Lady in the Van
– Lily Tomlin – Grandma

Best Director – Motion Picture
– Tom Haynes – Carol
– Alejandro G. Iñárritu – The Revenant
– Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
– George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road
– Ridley Scott – The Martian

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
– The Big Short
– Joy
– The Martian
– Spy
– Trainwreck

Best Motion Picture, Drama
– Carol
– Mad Max: Fury Road
– The Revenant
– Room
– Spotlight