Golden Globes nominate Top Gun: Maverick for Best Picture after Tom Cruise returned his 3 awards

Tom Cruise has been nominated for the 2023 Golden Globes as the producer of Best Picture nominee Top Gun: Maverick, just over one year since the superstar returned his trio of statuettes in protest over the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's racial exclusion scandal.

Cruise's Top Gun sequel — currently the top-grossing movie of 2022, with $718 million in domestic ticket sales — was among the five nominees in the Best Motion Picture — Drama category, announced Monday morning by actresses Selenis Leyva and Mayan Lopez.

EW previously reported that Cruise had given his three Golden Globes back to the organization in May 2021, months after the Los Angeles Times published an exposé indicating the HFPA had no Black members among its voting ranks. Cruise won Golden Globes in 1990 for Born on the Fourth of July (Best Actor in a Drama), 1997 for Jerry Maguire (Best Actor in a Drama), and 2000 for Magnolia (Best Supporting Actor).

Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Other celebrities who publicly opposed the Globes amid the controversy included filmmaker Ava DuVernay and Scarlett Johansson, a faction of over 100 publicity firms released a joint statement pledging to distance themselves from the HFPA until action for equity was taken, and NBC announced it would not air a 2022 Globes broadcast, resulting in the organization announcing its winners at a private ceremony in January.

Since then, NBC has committed to a January 2023 telecast, after the HFPA welcomed 103 diverse voters to its ranks in addition to announcing behind-the-scenes initiatives, including establishing an oversight committee and a partnership with the NAACP.

Still, multiple Hollywood insiders anonymously told EW in December 2021 that they don't anticipate the Globes returning to their former glory: "Any nomination from that organization this year is tainted," a prominent publicity head anonymously told EW last year. Another campaign mastermind added: "You focus on laurels that give pedigree and bring attention in a positive way. Given the conversation right now, [the Globes don't] feel positive. [They don't] feel like forward momentum."

Paramount Pictures Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun: Maverick'

Additionally, Best Actor nominee Brendan Fraser revealed in November that he would not attend the ceremony if he received a nod for his work in Darren Aronofsky's new drama The Whale, after he alleged that he was sexually assaulted by one of its former presidents, Philip Berk, whom has denied the allegation.

See the full list of 2023 Golden Globe nominations before winners are announced on the Jan. 10 NBC telecast, hosted by comedian and actor Jerrod Carmichael.

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