Golden Globe Nominations Announced; Penelope Cruz Sole Latino Nominee

With Only Almodovar's Broken Embraces and Chile's La Nana Making a showing

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced nominations for the 2009 Golden Globe awards, covering both motion pictures and television. There were many familiar names and relatively few surprises for media watchers; this year in particular, American Latino performers and behind-the-camera professionals were woefully underrepresented.

Among the nominations for Best Feature, Drama, only one — Avatar — features Latino actors (Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez). The same applies to Best Feature, Comedy, where Nine’s Penelope Cruz stands out as the only Latino actress in a prominent role in any of the five nominated films.

None of the nominated actors or actresses in the Drama or Comedy categories are Latino, and Penelope Cruz stands out as the only Latina nominated in any of the supporting role categories for Nine.

Two of the five nominees in the Foreign Film category come from Spanish-speaking countries — Pedro Almodavar’s Broken Embraces and Sebastian Silva’s The Maid from Chile.

Latino actors are major components in many of the ensemble shows nominated in the Golden Glove television categories. One of the five dramatic series feature American Latinos: Dexter, with Lauren Velez and David Zayaz, Modern Family with Sofia Vergara and Rico Rodriguez, The Office with Oscar Nunez, and Glee with Naya Rivera in a growing supporting role. None of these performers or any other Latinos appear in the ranks of nominees for television performance, either as leads or in support, and the network programs with prominent Latino actors or Latino culture – i.e., Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives — were overlooked entirely. Meanwhile, a number of up-and-coming or well-recognized Latino performers, notably previous Golden Globe nominee Eva Longoria Parker and Sofia Vergara, whose work on the nominated Modern Family has generated much interest, did not appear on the list.
The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be announced in a televised ceremony on Sunday, January 17.