Golden Globes Just Shut Down Michael Jackson’s Billion Dollar Biopic, and Jaafar Jackson’s Awards Dream Just Got Way Harder

October 21, 2026 5 Min Read

Golden Globes Just Shut Down Michael Jackson’s Billion Dollar Biopic, and Jaafar Jackson’s Awards Dream Just Got Way Harder

Few films have had a wilder year than Michael. Antoine Fuqua’s biopic of the King of Pop opened on April 24 and became the first biopic in history to cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office, finishing its theatrical run at roughly $1.029 billion. It is now officially Lionsgate’s biggest release ever, towering over everything else the studio has put out.

So when awards season arrived, Lionsgate had a natural plan: enter Michael in the Golden Globes’ Musical or Comedy category, where the competition is traditionally a little kinder and the six nomination slots are not quite as brutal to crack. There was just one problem. The Golden Globes said no.

The Committee Rejected the Bid, Even After the Director’s Letter

According to a report first published by Gold Derby on October 20 and confirmed by TheWrap and Variety on October 21, the Golden Globes awards committee rejected Lionsgate’s submission to have Michael compete as a comedy or musical at the 84th Golden Globes. The film will now compete in the drama categories instead.

What makes this one sting is that Lionsgate followed the rulebook to the letter. When a film submits in a category that goes against the grain, Globes procedure requires a letter from the director laying out the case. Antoine Fuqua wrote that letter. The committee read it, reviewed the request, and denied it anyway.

The reasoning comes down to a single rule. The Golden Globes’ official guidelines state: “A musical can be a comedy or a drama in which songs are used in addition to spoken dialogue to further the plot.” The committee reportedly felt that the musical performances in Michael did not meet that standard, that the songs did not drive the narrative in the way the rule requires.

For a movie about the most famous musical performer who ever lived, being told it is not quite musical enough has to rank as one of the most ironic awards season rulings in years.

A Billion Dollar Movie in the Most Crowded Field Imaginable

This is not a technicality with no consequences. The drama categories at the Golden Globes are where the giants play, and this year’s field is stacked beyond belief.

Instead of the musical or comedy race, Michael will now fight for one of just six drama nomination slots against Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three, and the Los Javis production La Bola Negra, among others. Six slots, and half of them already feel spoken for.

The hit lands hardest on Jaafar Jackson. The late pop icon’s nephew, playing his uncle in his feature film debut, has been the story of this awards season so far. His performance drew widespread praise even from critics who panned the film itself. He was widely seen as a strong bet in the Musical or Comedy actor race. Now he has to fight for a spot in the lead actor in a drama category against likely nominees like Matt Damon for The Odyssey, John Malkovich for Wild Horse Nine, and Andrew Scott for Elsinore, per TheWrap’s breakdown.

It is a completely different sport. The drama actor race is where careers are made and broken, and first timers with a controversial blockbuster behind them do not get the benefit of the doubt.

The Irony Is Hard to Miss

Here is what makes this decision so fascinating. Michael is a movie about Michael Jackson. Music is not window dressing in it. It is the entire subject. And yet the committee concluded that the songs do not advance the plot in the way a true musical requires.

There is precedent for this kind of call. Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic, competed at the Globes as a drama and won. Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 Elvis went the same route. But had those films arrived a few years earlier, before the Globes tightened its classification rules, they might have squeaked through as musicals, exactly the way Ray did in 2005 and Walk the Line did in 2006.

The rules changed, and Michael is the first big casualty of the new reality. A billion dollar music biopic, ruled too dramatic to be a musical.

One Silver Lining for the Cast

The ruling does not touch the supporting categories. Unlike the lead acting races, the Golden Globes do not split its supporting actor and actress categories by genre, so the campaigns of Michael co-stars Colman Domingo and Nia Long, who play Michael’s parents Joe and Katherine Jackson, continue exactly as planned. No category change, no extra competition.

The Split Verdict Behind the Box Office

Part of what makes Michael such a strange case is how divided everyone is about it. Critics were largely unimpressed. The film holds a 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviewers calling it a polished but empty hagiography. Audiences disagreed completely, handing it a 97% score and powering it past $1 billion anyway.

That divide explains why the category question mattered so much. In the musical or comedy race, a populist crowd pleaser with a beloved star turn can genuinely win. In the drama race, the film has to convince voters who already dismissed it critically, and it has to do so against the heaviest prestige artillery of the year.

The film also carries baggage that a musical classification might have softened. The legacy of Michael Jackson remains complicated by the child sexual abuse allegations against him, a subject the film reportedly sidesteps. A sequel targeting late 2027 or early 2028 is planned, and Jaafar Jackson has said it will address those accusations from his point of view.

What Happens Next

Lionsgate can still appeal the decision, but it has to do so by October 31, the submission deadline. Sources cited in the initial reports say an appeal is unlikely, and the studio declined to comment. Unless something changes in the next ten days, the drama classification stands.

Golden Globes nominations for the 84th ceremony will be announced on December 7, 2026. The ceremony, hosted for the second year in a row by Nikki Glaser, will air on January 10.

Between now and then, Lionsgate has to make a case that a movie the Globes just declared not musical enough belongs in the most competitive drama field in recent memory. The billion dollar box office proves people showed up. December 7 will tell us whether awards voters are willing to do the same.

Sources: TheWrap, Consequence