The Glorious and the Precious

Nominees for the Golden Globe Awards were announced yesterday by John Krasinski, Diane Kruger, and Justin Timberlake. "Up in the Air" has a leading six nominations, followed by "Nine" with five nods. Each movie has three acting nominations.

The finalists for film are:

best picture (drama)-

Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, Up in the Air

In general, "Up in the Air" is thought of as a comedy, so its inclusion in the drama category is surprising. This may help its Oscar chances since comedies do not fare as well as dramas with the Academy. "Up in the Air" was reportedly submitted by its distributor Paramount to the Globes in the musical or comedy category.


best picture (musical or comedy)-
500 Days of Summer, The Hangover, It's Complicated, Julie & Julia, Nine


best director:

Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker"
James Cameron for "Avatar"
Clint Eastwood for "Invictus"
Jason Reitman for "Up in the Air"
Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds"

Cameron is in the running against his ex-wife Bigelow.


best actor (drama)-

Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart"
George Clooney in "Up in the Air"
Colin Firth in "A Single Man"
Morgan Freeman in "Invictus"
Tobey Maguire in "Brothers"

The biggest surprise in this year's announcements may have been the inclusion of Maguire in this category.

Fox Searchlight submitted Crazy Heart as a musical, but Bridges nabbed a nod for best actor in a drama.


best actress (drama)-

Emily Blunt in "The Young Victoria"
Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side"
Helen Mirren in "The Last Station"
Carey Mulligan in "An Education"
Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"


best actor (musical or comedy)-

Matt Damon in "The Informant!"
Daniel Day-Lewis in "Nine"
Robert Downey Jr. in "Sherlock Holmes"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "(500) Days of Summer"
Michael Stuhlbarg in "A Serious Man"

best actress (musical or comedy)-

Sandra Bullock in "The Proposal"
Marion Cotillard in "Nine"
Julia Roberts in "Duplicity"
Meryl Streep in "It's Complicated"
Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia"

Streep, Bullock, and Damon are double nominees. Streep is nominated twice in the same category, and so are both of her movies.


best supporting actor-
Matt Damon in "Invictus"
Woody Harrelson in "The Messenger"
Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station"
Stanley Tucci in "The Lovely Bones"
Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds"

War movies did well, with nominations going to Brothers, The Messenger, and The Hurt Locker.


best supporting actress-
Penelope Cruz in "Nine"
Vera Farmiga in "Up in the Air"
Anna Kendrick in "Up in the Air"
Mo'Nique in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
Julianne Moore in "A Single Man"


best foreign-language film-

Baaria, Broken Embraces, The Maid (La Nana), A Prophet, The White Ribbon

best animated film-

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, Up


best screenplay-

Neill Blomkamp for "District 9"
Mark Boal for "The Hurt Locker"
Nancy Meyers for "It's Complicated"
Jason Reitman for "Up in the Air"
Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds"


Inglourious Basterds's four nods seem like a surprise.


best original score:

Michael Giacchino for "Up"
Marvin Hamlisch for "The Informant!"
James Horner for "Avatar"
Abel Korzeniowski for "A Single Man"
Karen O, Carter Burwell for "Where the Wild Things Are"

best original song:

"Cinema Italiano" (written by Maury Yeston) for "Nine"

"I Want to Come Home" (written by Paul McCartney) for "Everybody's Fine"

"I Will See You" (written by James Horner, Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell) for "Avatar"

"The Weary Kind (Theme from 'Crazy Heart')" (written by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett) for "Crazy Heart"

"Winter" (written by U2) for "Brothers"


The Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Martin Scorsese.

The awards are to be presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is comprised of about 85 critics and reporters for overseas publications and other media.


The Globes will be presented on January 17, six days before the Oscar deadline for voting on nominations. Therefore, the awards may help in landing an Oscar nod.