Golden Globe Nominations Announced

‘Atonement’ leads the pack

With seven nominations, "Atonement" leads an overflowing field of drama contenders in Golden Globe bids announced Thursday.

"American Gangster," "Eastern Promises," "The Great Debaters," "Michael Clayton," "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" fill out the drama field. Three musicals — "Across the Universe," "Hairspray" and "Sweeney Todd" — join "Charlie Wilson’s War" (the recipeint of five noms) and "Juno" in the comedy-musical category. "No Country," "Clayton" and "Sweeney" garnered four apiece. Three hits will compete for best animated movie: "Bee Movie," "The Simpsons Movie" and "Ratatouille." Clint Eastwood also turned up in a new milieu, with best score and song noms for "Grace is Gone." In TV, British projects made an unusually strong showing, including three made-for-TV movie or miniseries nominees: HBO’s "Five Days" and "Longford" and BBC America’s "The State Within." Presented by the 80-some-odd members of the Hollywood Foreign Press. Assn., the Globes’ significance has stemmed in part from its perceived reliability as a predictor for the Academy Awards, with the eventual best picture winner having also been feted at the Globes all but once from 1993 to 2004.

That correlation, however, hasn’t held up as well over the last three years — including 2007, when "The Departed" won the Oscar, after "Babel" and "Dreamgirls" (which failed even to secure a best-picture nomination) were honored in the drama and musical-comedy categories, respectively. Even so, with various critics groups spreading their top kudos among a number of films and the sense that several Oscar slots are up for grabs, the Globes will doubtless be viewed as a bellwether that could help thin a crowded field of potential contenders.

The 65th annual awards will be presented Jan. 13 and again televised on NBC. A potential complication to the telecast is the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild, which could not only impact the production itself but also dampen the tone of the traditionally celebratory awards season. Steven Spielberg has been chosen to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award.  Source

Nominations under the CUT - Press Below