'Squid Game' nominated for Golden Globes, even before release

Lee Jung-jae as Ki-hun in the second season of "Squid Game". Photo Netflix

SEOUL - The second season of Squid Game has been nominated for best TV series by the prestigious Golden Globes, even before its release.

The 2025 Golden Globes, to be held January 5, 2025, required submissions by November 4 for shows that premiered within the 2024 calendar year. With its December 26 premiere, the second season of Squid Game narrowly qualified, with Netflix reportedly submitting the series early for consideration.

In the best TV drama series category, for which the show was nominated, Squid Game competes against FX and Hulu's Shogun, which made Emmy history by winning 18 categories at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards and 76th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards early this year. Other nominees in the category include Netflix's The Diplomat, Apple TV+'s Slow Horses, Amazon Prime Video's Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Peacock's Day of the Jackal.

While it is not unusual for the Golden Globes to nominate projects that have not yet been publicly released, The Hollywood Reporter pointed out, "The Globes nominating a title not yet released mostly occurs with movies rather than TV series."

Netflix dominated nominations at this year's Golden Globes, with 13 films and 23 series in the running.

Individually, French musical crime film Emilia Perez, starring Selena Gomez, led the pack with 10 nominations, the highest across both film and TV. On the film side, historical drama The Brutalist trailed with seven nominations, while for television comedy-drama The Bear followed with five nominations.

The first season of Squid Game, which premiered in September 2021, was also nominated for best TV series at the 2022 Golden Globes, ultimately losing out to HBO's Succession.

Lee Jung-jae was nominated for best actor in a TV series, while O Yeong-su won best supporting actor in a TV series. O’s win marked the first time a Korean actor received the award in the category - The Korea Herald