© The HillSacha Baron Cohen as "Borat" on November 13, 2006 in Sydney, Australia. (Getty)
After a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, films with a political theme or parallels made a strong showing in the Golden Globe nominations, announced Wednesday by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
David Fincher's "Mank," a dramatization of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz's writing of "Citizen Kane," leads the field, with six nominations, including best director, best motion picture: drama and best actor: drama for Gary Oldman, who plays Mankiewicz.
A smear campaign against socialist writer and then-California gubernatorial candidate Upton Sinclair figures heavily into its plot, and its depiction of media baron William Randolph Hearst, who launched a vendetta against "Citizen Kane" over suspicions it was based on him, has drawn comparisons to former President Trump.
Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm" was also among the films with the most nominations, including best comedy or musical and best actor.
Also nominated was Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, who plays the fictional Kazakh reporter's teenage daughter. The film achieved notoriety for a scene in which Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani accompanies Bakalova into a hotel room and places his hand near his waistband before Cohen interrupts the two. Giuliani has said he was adjusting a microphone.
Aaron Sorkin's "The Trial of the Chicago 7," meanwhile, scored five nominations, including best motion picture in the drama category. The film dramatizes the Nixon administration's prosecution of seven activists who participated in the demonstrations that became clashes with police at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Cohen was also nominated for best supporting actor for his performance as '60s radical Abbie Hoffman.
Nominated in the same category is British actor Daniel Kaluuya for "Judas and the Black Messiah," in which he plays Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, who was assassinated by police in 1969.
Hampton also appears briefly in Sorkin's film, played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.
The nominees for the TV Golden Globes also include multiple politically themed entries, including "The Comey Rule," "The Crown," and "Mrs. America."
The awards are set to be broadcast Feb. 28 after the coronavirus pandemic delayed them nearly two months.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will co-host the Golden Globes from opposite coasts, Variety first reported on Wednesday.