Beverly Hills, December 15: Futuristic epic Avatar and recession drama Up In the Air led the field as nominees for the 67th Golden Globes were unveiled today, signalling the start of Hollywood’s awards season.
Despite the fact that it has yet to be released in North America, Oscar-winner James Cameron’s groundbreaking Avatar scored four nominations including best drama and best director for the January 17 awards show.
The nominations will fuel hype about Avatar, which has garnered stellar reviews following its world premiere in London last week.
However Titanic director Cameron’s big budget labour of love faces stiff competition from Up In the Air, the acclaimed story about a corporate downsizer played by George Clooney who starts to question his life.
The film topped the list of nominees with six including best drama, a best actor nod for Clooney, and best director for Jason Reitman. It also earned acting nominations for Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.
The hopes of Avatar and Up In the Air could be threatened however by Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker, director Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping story about a maverick bomb disposal expert.
As well as a best drama nomination, the film earned a best director nod for Bigelow, whose previous films include the cult Patrick Swayze surfing and bank-robbing action film Point Break.
Other nominees for best drama include Quentin Tarantino’s blood-soaked World War Two revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds and the gritty Precious, about the struggles of an obese, illiterate and abused teenager.
Tarantino also earned a best director nomination for Inglourious Basterds, which picked up four nominations.
However there was a surprising best picture snub for Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s drama about former South African President Nelson Mandela’s efforts to unite the apartheid-scarred country around the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Although the film secured a best director nomination for Eastwood and a best actor nod for Morgan Freeman – who plays Mandela – the film was overlooked in the blue riband best drama category.
Freeman’s rivals in best actor include Clooney (Up In the Air), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Colin Firth (A Single Man) and Tobey Maguire (Brothers).
Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes splits its best picture prizes between genres, honouring best drama and best comedy/musical.
The Globes are often viewed as a key barometer of which films may go on to challenge for honours at the Oscars, which will take place at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre on March 7 next year.
Although 67.4 per cent of films which won best picture at the Academy Awards also won a Golden Globe, in recent years the awards have proved an unreliable barometer of likely Oscar winners.
Rags-to-riches drama Slumdog Millionaire is the only film in the past five years to have followed up a best picture statuette at the Golden Globes with victory at the Oscars.
In the best musical or comedy awards, Rob Marshall’s Nine is the overwhelming favourite, where its rivals are raunchy comedy The Hangover, It’s Complicated, Julie & Julia, and the low-budget 500 Days of Summer.
The star-studded Nine, about an Italian film director struggling to balance the demands of his tangled love life, won five nominations, including acting nods for Daniel Day-Lewis, France’s Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz.
Cotillard was nominated in the best actress for a musical or comedy, where her rivals include Julia Roberts (Duplicity) Sandra Bullock (The Proposal) and Meryl Streep, who received dual nods for her roles in It’s Complicated and Julie & Julia.
Bullock also secured a nomination in the best drama actress category for The Blind Side.
Other nominees include Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).
—Agencies