Dicaprio’s One Battle After Another Leads Golden Globe Nominations

Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest film, the darkly comic political saga “One Battle After Another,” has surged to the front of Hollywood’s awards season race, leading the 2026 Golden Globe nominations with nine nods and cementing its status as the film to beat. The haul marks a new high point in DiCaprio’s long relationship with the Globes and positions the movie as a major contender not just for January’s ceremony but for the Oscars that follow.​

A Dark Comedy Tops the Field

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s revamped Golden Globes put “One Battle After Another” at the center of this year’s film lineup, announcing that it had scored nine nominations, the most of any movie in contention. The film is categorized as a musical/comedy, placing it in the same competitive arena as other buzzy, high-profile titles while showcasing the Globes’ tendency to slot tonally complex work into the more flexible comedy side.​

Following behind are the Norwegian family drama “Sentimental Value” with eight nominations and the supernatural horror feature “Sinners” with seven, underlining how “One Battle After Another” has slightly edged out a crowded and diverse field. Other prominent contenders, including film adaptations like “Hamnet” and big-budget spectacles such as “Frankenstein” and the musical “Wicked: For Good,” also secured multiple nominations but still trail the DiCaprio vehicle.​

Story of a Disillusioned Revolutionary

“One Battle After Another” follows DiCaprio as a former revolutionary whose life has veered from idealism to weary compromise, only to be thrown back into danger when his daughter is abducted. The film blends political intrigue, family stakes, and pitch-black humor, using its protagonist’s midlife crisis and haunted past as a lens to explore the aftershocks of failed revolutions and the commodification of dissent.​

Set against an unnamed but recognizable post-revolutionary landscape, the narrative plays with genre conventions by mixing thriller elements, character-driven drama, and ironic comedy, which helps explain its placement in the Globes’ musical/comedy categories despite its serious subject matter. Critics have highlighted the film’s tonal balancing act—moving from satirical campaign rallies to tense hostage negotiations—which has fueled awards buzz for both the movie and its ensemble.​

DiCaprio’s Central Performance

At the heart of the film is DiCaprio’s portrayal of a “washed‑up” or disillusioned revolutionary who once believed he could reshape his country, only to find himself sidelined by history and trapped in personal regret. The Golden Globes recognized his work with an acting nomination in the musical/comedy field, adding another entry to a career-long list of Globe nods that have spanned both dramatic and comedic turns.​

DiCaprio’s awards résumé already includes multiple Golden Globe wins and an Oscar for best actor, and he has previously been honored for roles that blend intensity and irony, from corrupt stockbrokers to survival epics. “One Battle After Another” taps into this range, asking him to move fluidly between absurdist political theater and raw, emotional confrontations, a combination that voters often reward in years when the line between drama and comedy is blurred.​

An Ensemble-Driven Awards Juggernaut

The film’s cast extends well beyond its star, with supporting performances helping to drive its dominant nomination haul. Co‑stars including Sean, Teyana Taylor (often spelled Tana Taylor in early coverage), Benicio Del Toro and Chase Infiniti are cited in awards coverage as part of a stacked ensemble, and several of them have picked up individual acting nominations.​

This ensemble strength feeds into the film’s overall momentum, as many voters and commentators increasingly view richly populated casts as a marker of prestige in the era of “event” cinema. With its blend of veteran actors and rising talent, “One Battle After Another” has become a focal point for broader discussions about performance-driven films in a season otherwise dominated by franchises, horror hits, and IP‑based projects.​

How the Nominations Break Down

While full category-by-category listings are spread across official and industry platforms, several broad patterns are clear from the Golden Globes slate. “One Battle After Another” is nominated for best film in the musical/comedy category, as well as multiple acting awards and key craft or writing categories, bringing its total to nine.​

In film, “Sentimental Value,” “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” “Frankenstein” and “Wicked: For Good” cluster behind it, each mounting campaigns in their respective genres, from intimate European drama to big-budget genre spectacles. On the television side, series like “The White Lotus” dominate the nominations, giving the Globes a split narrative: a DiCaprio-led dark comedy leading the film discussion while prestige TV powerhouses shape the small-screen story.​

Lead Film Contenders at the Golden Globes

A Pivotal Year for the Golden Globes

This nomination slate arrives as the Golden Globes continue to reshape their image after years of scrutiny over diversity, governance and ethics, including criticism of the organization formerly known as the HFPA. The emphasis on a politically tinged, internationally resonant film like “One Battle After Another” reflects an effort to foreground topical stories and global casts alongside the usual star-driven vehicles.​

The introduction and expansion of new categories—including recognition for podcasting this year—also illustrates the Globes’ strategy to stay relevant in an entertainment landscape where streaming, audio and cross-platform franchises blur traditional lines. For award strategists, a strong Globes performance is not just about trophies but about visibility in a fragmented media environment, and leading the nominations list often guarantees weeks of additional coverage.​​

DiCaprio and His History with the Globes

For DiCaprio, the latest nomination is part of a decades-long history with the Golden Globes, stretching back to his early breakout performances in the 1990s. Over the years he has amassed numerous nominations and several wins, including trophies for dramatic, comedic and biographical roles, and his awards trajectory has frequently foreshadowed later Oscar recognition.​

He won a best actor in a drama Globe in 2016 in the same year he finally secured his long-awaited best actor Oscar, and has also taken home a musical or comedy Globe for a more flamboyant, satirical role earlier in his career. His ongoing presence in awards lineups underscores how “One Battle After Another” fits into a larger narrative: DiCaprio as a performer increasingly drawn to roles that interrogate power, politics and media spectacle while still appealing to broad audiences.​

A Strategic Victory for Warner Bros.

Behind the camera, “One Battle After Another” is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and backed by Warner Bros., a combination that lends it both auteur prestige and studio muscle. The film’s nomination sweep is being watched closely because it comes at a moment of major corporate change: Warner Bros. is in the process of being acquired by Netflix, a deal widely seen as an inflection point in Hollywood’s streaming wars.​​

For Warner Bros., leading the Golden Globes gives the studio leverage and symbolic value as it navigates integration talks with a global streaming giant that has historically built its brand on original content produced outside the traditional studio system. For Netflix, inheriting a freshly anointed awards frontrunner reinforces its ambition to control both the means of distribution and the prestige film pipeline, making “One Battle After Another” a case study in how theatrical and streaming strategies may converge.​​

Awards Season Momentum and Oscar Implications

Topping the Globe nominations has immediate and long-term implications for the film’s awards campaign. In the short term, the announcement amplifies awareness among general audiences, helps drive box office or streaming viewership and strengthens the film’s narrative as a frontrunner in voters’ minds.​​

Longer-term, strong performance at the Globes can influence the shape of the Oscar race, especially for films already viewed as serious contenders in acting and best picture fields. While the Globes do not perfectly predict the Academy Awards, overlapping voting bodies and media attention can consolidate support around a small group of titles, and “One Battle After Another” now sits at the center of that cluster.​

Thematic Resonance in a Polarized Era

The story of a spent revolutionary confronting his legacy and his family’s safety arrives in a period of heightened political polarization and public fatigue with grand ideological promises. Viewers and critics have pointed to the film’s commentary on how movements are co‑opted, how ex‑radicals are turned into brands, and how personal relationships become collateral damage in the struggle for power.​

By packaging these themes inside a darkly comic framework, the film reflects a broader trend in contemporary cinema: using humor and absurdity to address heavy subjects that might otherwise feel didactic or overwhelming. This tonal strategy aligns it with other recent awards favorites that blur the boundaries between satire and drama, allowing audiences to engage with political material through character-driven, often ironic storytelling.​

Television and Other Front-Runners

While “One Battle After Another” dominates the film conversation, the Globes’ television categories tell a parallel story. Series such as “The White Lotus” sit at or near the top of the TV nomination leaderboard, underscoring how darkly comic, socially critical storytelling is also prevalent on the small screen.​

This dual emphasis—on a DiCaprio-led political dark comedy in film and an ensemble-driven, satirical resort drama in television—creates thematic continuity across the ceremony, suggesting that awards voters are gravitating toward projects that dissect privilege, power and moral compromise. The combined film and TV lineups also reflect the ongoing blurring between cinematic and episodic storytelling as streaming platforms treat both as equal pillars of their brand.​

Changing Perceptions of the Globes

The Golden Globes once leaned heavily on their reputation as the “party of the year,” with red-carpet glamour and freewheeling speeches often overshadowing the awards themselves. After years of criticism, however, organizers have overhauled membership rules, invited new international voters and partnered with new broadcast and digital platforms in an attempt to restore credibility.​

Highlighting a film like “One Battle After Another,” which mixes serious political commentary with star power, may be part of a deliberate effort to curve the ceremony back toward a perception of substance rather than purely celebrity spectacle. At the same time, the continued presence of musicals, big-budget genre pieces and franchise-connected titles ensures that the Globes retain their traditional role as a glitzy, populist counterpart to more austere awards shows.​

What Comes Next for “One Battle After Another”

In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, the film’s campaign will intensify, with DiCaprio and his co-stars expected to be highly visible in interviews, screenings and roundtable events designed to keep the movie front-of-mind for voters. The studio and its partners will likely lean on the narrative of DiCaprio’s continued evolution as a political and environmental advocate off-screen, positioning the role as an extension of his longstanding interest in global issues.​​

If “One Battle After Another” converts a large share of its nominations into wins, it could enter the Oscars with formidable momentum and further elevate DiCaprio’s status as one of the defining actors of his generation in both drama and ambitious comedy. Even if it splits the awards with rivals like “Sentimental Value” and “Sinners,” its leading nomination count has already secured its place as a central story of this awards season—and as a symbol of how politically charged, darkly funny cinema can still galvanize both industry voters and global audiences.