One of this award season’s last remaining categorization questions has been answered: The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively report that just ahead of today’s Golden Globes submission deadline, Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s hot-button portrait of the rise of artificial intelligence, has been entered by Neon for Globes consideration in the musical/comedy categories, as opposed to the drama races.
This move means that the film — which Amazon/MGM dropped, allegedly out of fear of angering tech bros portrayed in it including OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Elon Musk, but which Neon subsequently picked up and has screened to rave reviews — will compete for a best picture Globe against the likes of Wild Horse Nine, The Invite, The Debut, Obsession, Club Kid, Project Hail Mary and Tender Loving Care, as opposed to The Odyssey, La Bola Negra, Dune: Part Three, Elsinore, All of a Sudden, Fjord, I Play Rocky and Possible Love.
The only other category that this classification will impact is the best actor race, in which Yura Borisov, who portrays Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder, is competing, and will now be competing against the likes of John Malkovich (Wild Horse Nine), Ryan Gosling (Project Hail Mary), Jordan Firstman (Club Kid), Seth Rogen (The Invite) and Tom Cruise (Digger), rather than Andrew Scott (Elsinore), Matt Damon (The Odyssey), Robert Pattinson (Primetime), Anthony Ippolito (I Play Rocky), Sebastian Stan (Fjord) and John Turturro (The Only Living Pickpocket in New York).
The film’s strongest awards prospect is probably Andrew Garfield, who gives a tour de force turn as Altman, and who will compete in the genre-blending supporting actor race. Monica Barbara, also excellent in the film as OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, will be up for best supporting actress.
Many expected Artificial to be entered for the Globes as a drama, given that it deals frankly with concerns that artificial intelligence has grown out of control. (Its closest comp is probably 2010’s The Social Network, another very dark but also funny tech-centric film, which competed as a drama and won four awards, including best picture.)
But there is certainly a legitimate argument that Artificial, which had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 5, is a comedy. Indeed, it was written by noted New Yorker humorist Simon Rich, who has also written for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons; and elements of the film have evoked audible laughter in screenings, including Sutskever’s idiosyncracies (repeating his name three times, telling colleagues that AGI would come “Not in your lifetime – due to your advanced ages,” etc.) and Ike Barinholtz’s portrayal of Musk.
THR recently broke the news of one of the year’s other most notable Globes category submissions: Obsession being entered as a musical/comedy, rather than a drama.
The 84th Golden Globe Awards will take place on Jan. 10, 2027.
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