The nominations for the Golden Globes – the glitzy awards ceremony that are constantly proclaimed as indicators of where the Oscars might go, even though they’re not really – have been announced, with Up In The Air leading the way.
There were precious few surprises or risks taken by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the wizened and Werther’s Originals-loving collection of Cocoon extras who moonlight as film journalists in their spare time – but there were some notable nominees, nonetheless:
In the Best Picture (Drama) category, they found room to include James Cameron’s Avatar, although they weren’t able to go the extra mile and nominate any of its cast (Zoe Saldana is certainly worth a nod), perhaps of the mind that mo-cap acting is not real acting.
Other Best Picture nominees are Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air, ** Inglourious Basterds**, Precious and The Hurt Locker, while the bet-hedging Musical/Comedy category recognised the likes of (500) Days Of Summer, Nine (the only nominee likely to feature on Oscar’s shortlist),** It’s Complicated**, Julie & Julia and, because they have to make up the numbers somehow, The Hangover.
The Best Director category threw up one of the big stories of the awards season – James Cameron going up against his former missus, The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow, with the likes of Jason Reitman, Quentin Tarantino and the now-obligatory nod for Clint Eastwood rounding out the five.
In the acting stakes, Meryl Streep – who would get nominated if she turned up on screen with a turkey on her head, wearing a giant pair of sunglasses and doing a ridiculous shimmy, it seems – hogged two nominations in Best Actress (Comedy/Musical), while Sandra Bullock bestrode both Drama and Comedy/Musical like a colossus with nods for The Blind Side and The Proposal.
Good to see Jeff Bridges, for Crazy Heart, Michael Stuhlbarg for **A Serious Man **and Colin Firth for A Single Man (don’t get them mixed up) also in the running, although we think the HFPA could have been ballsy and nominated District 9’s Sharlto Copley for his astonishing, entirely improvised performance as Wikus van der Merwe. Incredibly, despite that improvisation, District 9 did get a nomination – for Best Screenplay.
Best Supporting Actor nominees included Christoph Waltz – surely the man to beat – for Inglourious Basterds, along with, surprisingly, Matt Damon for Invictus. Woody Harrelson was also nominated – not, sadly, for his awesome turn in Zombieland (or, indeed, his horrendous cameo in 2012), but for his low-key work in The Messenger. Personally, we’d have included Peter Capaldi for his work as Malcolm Tucker in In The Loop (which should also have been nominated for Best Comedy), but no such luck. Also interesting to see that Alec Baldwin, long considered a shoo-in for It's Complicated, didn't make the grade: is he being punished for hosting the Oscars?
Best Supporting Actress nominations went to the likes of Mo’Nique for her role as a demonic mum in Precious, Penelope Cruz’ now customary nod for Nine, and an Up In The Air split, with Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick sharing the honours.
The nominations were announced a few seconds ago, with the utterly bizarre trio of **The Office’**s John Krasinski, Diane Kruger and Justin Timberlake doing the honours.
The Golden Globes will be presented on January 17 at a big old starry do at the Beverly Hilton in LA, with Ricky Gervais being all cheeky and British as host. Here's the full list of nominees...
Best Motion Picture -- Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sadibe, Precious
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
**Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy **
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Mo-Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Best Animated Feature Film
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Princess and the Frog
Up
Best Foreign Language Film
Barria
Broken Embraces
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
The Maid
Best Director -- Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds
Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture
Up in the Air
It's Complicated
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Best Original Score -- Motion Picture
Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are
Best Original Song -- Motion Picture
"I Will See You," Avatar
"The Weary Kind," The Crazy Heart
"Winter," U2, Brothers
"Cinema Italiano," Nine
"I Want to Come Home," Paul McCartney Everybody's Fine