Golden Globes: Film Nominations

The Artist solidifies its front-runner status as it nabbed a leading 6 nominations this morning followed closely by The Descendants and The Help at 5 nods each. The big winner today though was George Clooney's The Ides of March which notched four nominations after being largely ignored this awards season. Overall, no big shocks and some pleasant surprises. At the very least the Comedy/Musical nominations this year are light years better than they were last year.

Best Director

• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• George Clooney, The Ides of March
• Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Alexander Payne, The Descendants
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Things are far from set in this category, but regardless Hazanavisius and Scorsese, two names that gave presenter Sofia Vergara the most trouble, should be set for Oscars, but the other spots are literally up for grabs with still many super famous names and critical favorites in line.

Best Motion Picture, Drama

• The Help
• Hugo
• The Ides of March
• Moneyball
• War Horse
• The Descendants

The biggest snubs seem to be The Tree of Life and Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud, both of which were completely shut out today. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy also came up empty, but that was more expected. Apart from The Ides of March and possibly War Horse, the rest should garner Best Picture nods

Best Actor, Drama

• George Clooney, The Descendants
• Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
• Michael Fassbender, Shame
• Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
• Brad Pitt, Moneyball

My, my what a certifiably fuckable list. I mean talented. Such a talented list. Clooney and Pitt are Oscar-bound yet again and possibly Leonardo DiCaprio as well with all three repeating their SAG nominations yesterday. Michael Shannon and Gary Oldman really needed to show up here and Ryan Gosling, doubly nominated this year, just has too many films people want to honor. More on that later.

Best Actress, Drama

• Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis, The Help
• Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

This is fantastic for Rooney Mara and Glenn Close since the other three are assured Oscar nominations (Davis and Streep) or at least very close to it (Swinton). In Close's case, she went from DOA to true contender with a nod here to match her SAG nomination yesterday. Not so good news to Elizabeth Olsen and Charlize Theron.

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

• 50/50
• The Artist
• Bridesmaids
• Midnight in Paris
• My Week With Marilyn

I haven't seen The Artist, which again is the Oscar frontrunner, but wow what a line-up of films. This category always gives us some dubious nominees but not this year! I'm especially happy that 50/50 and Midnight in Paris are being recognized.

Best Actor, Comedy or Musical

• Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
• Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love
• Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris

Dujardin is probably the only one here who will be nominated for an Oscar, but like the category above, this is a great line-up (I would say it's equally fuckable as the Drama section, but I'm not really into Gleeson). I'm especially tickled at Gordon-Levitt and Wilson, the latter the best I've ever seen him in any film. Now about Ryan Gosling. Three nominations this week and all for three different films. People clearly love him (how could you not?) but his fans don't know where to focus the love for Oscars.

Best Actress, Comedy or Musical

• Jodie Foster, Carnage
• Charlize Theron, Young Adult
• Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
• Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
• Kate Winslet, Carnage

Three Oscar winners, an Oscar nominee, and Kristen Wiig. Not bad at all. The biggest surprise here are the sudden appearance of the Carnage ladies and yet it's not THAT surprising. What other performances were there this year? I'm rooting for Michelle Williams here slightly especially since she's the only one here who seems to be heading to the Oscars this year.

Best Supporting Actor

• Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
• Albert Brooks, Drive
• Jonah Hill, Moneyball
• Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
• Christopher Plummer, Beginners

After the inexplicable SAG snub, Brooks is back in the game giving his film its one and only nomination. He is joined by Plummer and Branagh, all three look like good bets for the Oscars. Hill matches his SAG nod yesterday which means his chances of getting his first Oscar nomination just went up by a lot. Happy to see Mortensen recognized, but he has strong competition for Oscars. Patton Oswalt, Armie Hammer, and Nick Nolte just missed.

Best Supporting Actress

• Berenice Bejo, The Artist
• Jessica Chastain , The Help
• Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer, The Help
• Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Pretty shocking to see Melissa McCarthy miss out here after going on a tear the past week or so and especially by the evident love they have for her film. With that said, her SAG nomination still makes her likely to be nominated. Tough luck for Vanessa Redgrace and Carey Mulligan. There's always BAFTA, but the momentum is just not there for either one. Chastain or Spencer for the win here.

Best Animated Film

• The Adventures of Tintin
• Arthur Christmas
• Cars 2
• Puss In Boots
• Rango

Everyone else chose to ignore Pixar this year, except I guess these people who missed the memo. They could've at least recognized Winnie the Pooh! In any case, this is between Tintin and Rango and both will similarly duke it out at the Oscars.

Best Foreign Language Film

• The Flowers of War (China)
• In The Land of Blood and Honey (USA)
• The Kid WIth The Bike (Belgium)
• A Separation (Iran)
• The Skin I Live In (Spain)

A Separation continues its impressive run through awards season. It'll certainly get nominated, but Oscars don't follow the hype (even if deserved) here. Angelina's directorial debut film also makes it in, which duh.

Best Screenplay

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• The Ides of March
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball

The Ides of March is the only surprise here with the competition to win between The Descendants (Jim Rash!) and Moneyball. All look likely for an Oscar bid with Ides of March the possible weak link.

Best Score

• The Artist
• W.E.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• War Horse

Madonna's film makes it in which makes me think they just wanted her to walk the red carpet ala Angelina Jolie, but whatever. I have no clue who was in the running for this or who was snub, though I suppose this was the place I expected to see Harry Potter, whose star seems to be fading fast this awards season.

Best Song
"Lay Your Head Down," Albert Nobbs
"Hello Hello," Gnomeo and Juliet
"The Living Proof," The Help
"The Keeper," Machine Gun Preacher
"Masterpiece," W.E.

No Muppets? Lame. And I'm already tired writing about awards. The end.

Click here to see my thoughts on the TV nominations.