In case you haven’t seen them yet, here’s the full list. Film highlights (if a title is underlined, click on it to read my review):
Best Picture, Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air
I haven’t seen Avatar but unless it’s awesome, I’m rooting for Up in the Air.
Best Picture, Musical/Comedy
500 Days of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
Haven’t seen The Hangover. So excited to see (500) Days in there! It’s a charming little film you need to rent when it comes out Dec. 22. As long as the winner isn’t Nine, I’m good.
Best Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Haven’t seen Invictus or Crazy Heart. Nice surprise to see Maguire nominated; he’s quite good in Brothers. I’d love to see Clooney take this, though.
Best Actress, Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
This category is a tough one; I like all these. I’d narrow it down to Blunt vs. Sidibe.
Best Actor, Musical/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
Another tough one to call. Might as well do eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
Best Actress, Musical/Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Streep deserves it for Julia & Julia but if she cancels herself out, Cotillard should take it. I like Roberts and Duplicity just fine, but her inclusion here has got to be the biggest shocker.
Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
This one’s easy: Christoph Waltz.
Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Another easy one: Mo’Nique all the way, baby!
Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
I’m on Team Reitman but Lee Daniels was robbed for Precious.
Best Screenplay
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Rooting for Reitman & Turner. And wha…?! Precious snubbed again? No matter. I’m still certain it’ll be Oscar nominated in this category.
Best Score
Up
The Informant!
Avatar
A Single Man
Where the Wild Things Are
Michael Giacchino has had an amazing year and will win for Up (he also scores Lost, Fringe and Star Trek). Up‘s theme is the only one I can still hum and I saw it back in May.
Best Song
“Cinema Italiano,” Nine
“I Want to Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine
“I Will See You,” Avatar
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart
“Winter,” Brothers
The prestige song here is “Winter,” by a socially conscious band about a serious subject (our military personnel). But I came out of Nine singing “Cinema Italiano,” and I didn’t even like the movie that much.
Best Animated Film
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess & The Frog
Up
No contest: Up is tops in my book!
Best Foreign Language Film
Baria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
No clue here. Haven’t seen any of them. If I had to guess, I’d say Ribbon.
What did you think of the noms? Who are you rooting for? I think I’m most excited about Ricky Gervais as host!
31 Comments
Corey Wilde
December 15, 2009 at 9:33 pmDo you think that when so many of the films are not available to the general public that the awards organizations stand in some danger of making themselves irrelevant to the general population, i.e., me?
BIZMAN5
December 15, 2009 at 10:19 pmWell, Corey, it was never a popular vote amongst the public. These awards are voted on by people in the entertainment industry. Which is why The Dark Knight didn’t win.
Pop Culture Nerd
December 15, 2009 at 10:42 pmI think the HFPA’s top priority is to put on a show attended by the most stars, which in turn will garner high ratings so a network will broadcast their show again next year. They compensate for the general public’s lack of familiarity with the movies by nominating the biggest names possible. It explains Julia Roberts’s nomination and two for Sandra Bullock. I like both actresses and those performances but let’s just say their chances at Oscar noms are slim. I think a lot of people, even if they haven’t seen the movies, will watch to see their favorite actors and/or gawk at the fashion and the Globes will remain popular.
But this doesn’t mean a serious movie fan like you will find it relevant. During years when I haven’t seen a lot of the nominated films, I’m not very invested, either, though I might like the fashion a bit more than you.
Shell Sherree
December 16, 2009 at 5:51 amI saw Broken Embraces the other night but haven’t seen any of the other nominees for Best Foreign Language Film, so can’t venture an opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though. Aside from that ~ I’d love to see Robert Downey Jr. take one home!!
Pop Culture Nerd
December 16, 2009 at 7:17 pmTwo weeks ago, I was invited to a Sherlock Holmes screening with RDJ doing Q & A afterward. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the e-mail invitation until a couple hours after it went out. By the time I RSVP’d, the screening was full. Oh, I was not pleased. I would’ve been right there in the front row and probably tried to get a pic of him for you!
Shell Sherree
December 18, 2009 at 6:09 amArrrrghhhh! I’m displeased in sympathy, PCN!
EIREGO
December 16, 2009 at 10:47 amI think it is going to be UP IN THE AIR. It’s the most crisp, current and insightful movie on the list that also has a sense of humor. I called SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE last year as well.
Trust me.
Clooney’s gonna take it for best actor.
The Best Actress list has me confused. Not sure if they would give it to Sidebe. And Mulligan’s performance, while strong, remains mired in some plotlines that don’t make a lot of sense.
Haven’t seen the rest.
ARB
December 16, 2009 at 10:59 amI think Up In the Air will win best pic, but I thought Hurt Locker was very powerful. Inglorious Basturds was a joke. And, I have only seen those 15-16 minutes of Avatar, but nothing there tells me it deserves Best Pic. Give it all the special effects awards you want, but really? Best Pic?
Pop Culture Nerd
December 16, 2009 at 7:18 pmHaha! Love your “basturds” spelling! It succinctly denotes your feelings about the film.
Poncho
December 16, 2009 at 12:13 pmI haven’t seen many of the films there, so, as Corey said, it’s tough to get invested in the awards. The thing is that when I see a movie before the awards season I get hyped about the performance, cinematography, etc., but then most of the films that get nominated -and win- are released after the awards (specially here in Mexico), and then when I watch them the hype doesn’t come. At least that’s what happens most of the times (clear exceptions are Cotillard’s La môme which I rented about a year later, and Blanchett in The Aviator which somehow I didn’t watch until 2 years ago, among few others).
Anyway, my 2 cents are as follow:
* Based on your review, Up in the Air should get the award, but The Hurt Locker has nailed a bunch of critics’ awards so I think it could be tough.
* I’ve only seen The Hangover and (500) Days of Summer but TH is amazingly funny, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it take the top spot.
* I think Clooney has a big chance, but Bridges has taken a few critics’ awards also. I’d love Firth to be given some more love States-side.
* I LOOOOVE Helen Mirren, but I think Emily Blunt has a huge chance.
* It’s tough not to think Day-Lewis could win, but I think Matt Damon has a huge chance. I’ve only seen the trailer (of The Informant!), but I cried of laughter after it, so… I’d put the names in little papers and put them in a bag…
* Meryl Streep hands down.
* No clue in script or direction. I wouldn’t give an award to Tarantino. He’s a genious in my book, but not an award-deserving director or screenwriter.
* Score & Animated Film Up FTW.
* Song: “Cinema Italiano”.
* Foreign Language… no clue… but I think Broken Embraces has a huge chance.
It’s easier for me to predict the Oscars, though (I had about 4 or 5 mistakes last year).
Do you plan to post the TV noms. I have seen them and would like to comment on them too 😀 (Gleek here!).
Poncho
December 16, 2009 at 12:16 pmI missed the supporting categories, but those ones are easy: Mo’Nique and Waltz… no contest there (Waltz was the one thing in Basterds that would keep me obsessed over weeks).
Pop Culture Nerd
December 16, 2009 at 7:31 pmThanks for your insightful, detailed breakdown, Poncho. I have a problem, too, with seeing a movie after too much hype. It happened to me with Little Miss Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire. Saw them after tons of rave reviews and thought they were cute but I was underwhelmed.
I love Helen Mirren, too, but fell asleep at least 3 times during The Last Station. She was very good, but the movie bored me.
I inserted the link to the TV noms because it was getting too long to list them all here. But let’s discuss them anyway! I love that Glee got 4 noms! I always root for 30 Rock in the comedy category but now it’s gonna be hard with Glee as a challenger. And I was excited to see Courteney Cox nominated for Cougar Town. Have you been watching that? It’s gotten really good. So raunchy and wrong and hilarious.
Who were you excited about?
Poncho
December 16, 2009 at 11:53 pmI haven’t been able to follow every TV show completely, but I’ve been catching some eps and recaps every now and then, specially since not all of them have yet aired here, and streaming gets tricky sometimes. Cox’s always great (and I wouldn’t mind being her boytoy) and Cougar Town‘s funny enough as far as I’ve seen it.
I do think Glee might break a little of the spree 30 Rock‘s been having, though I wouldn’t be mad if it went either way. I think Jane Lynch has the GG in her bag (but it would be great if Chloë Sevigny takes it), and it would be lovely to see Lea Michele take one as well but with Fey and Colette there (have you seen …Tara? I understand that Emmy now!).
I think Alec Baldwin will win, but the Gleek hype might also benefit Morrison, don’t you think?
Can’t guess much in the drama section ‘though… I’d bet on Hugh Laurie and Glenn Close (as safe bets), but I think I wouldn’t be much wrong to guess Anna Paquin (she took it last year, but she wasn’t that great last season), or Michael C. Hall (he was A-mazing!). Hard for me this one…
I’m all in for giving the GG to Michael Emerson. He won me over with his Emmy speech.
People who were robbed: again Elizabeth Mitchell and Jim Parsons!!!
Poncho
December 17, 2009 at 12:00 amBy the way, I was excited to see Juliana Margulies nominated. That must be a very tough part to play! I’ve seen a few eps and OMG… I wouldn’t ever wish to be in The Good Wife‘s shoes (it would be tough, genderwise, but nonetheless)…
The pilot was killer.
le0pard13
December 17, 2009 at 9:29 amThe Good Wife is my wife and I’s fav show. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised with Ridley / Tony Scott being the executive producers.
Pop Culture Nerd
December 17, 2009 at 12:51 pmI agree Jane Lynch should prepare her acceptance speech, a hilarious one, no doubt. I think Fey is a better actress than Michele but if Michele wins, I wouldn’t cry. I’d be okay with Morrison winning, too, though Baldwin still makes me laugh out loud. As for Tara, I’ll tell you a secret: Not only have I watched it, I’ll be in one episode in season 2.
I’m rooting for Laurie & Kyra Sedgwick. The other actresses are fine but I don’t like their shows. And yes, Elizabeth Mitchell was robbed! LOVE her!
le0pard13
December 16, 2009 at 4:00 pmLet’s see… I agree with you that it’s likely between THE HURT LOCKER and UP IN THE AIR (but, I’ll be taking in AVATAR on Friday). It’s funny to see two ex’s (Bigelow and Cameron were married to each other at one time) for Best Director. I really enjoyed INVICTUS, but it’s a notch below UITA, overall (though I felt better by ride’s end with ‘I’). Freeman and Damon are very good with their roles in that movie; though, still pulling for Clooney I admit.
UP should win in animation. But, Coraline,
Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess & The Frog represent a good set of contenders in that category (don’t discount a possible Pixar backlash because they win most of the time–deservedly). I’ve not seen PRECIOUS, as yet, but Mo’Nique by all accounts is the favorite. But, being so early a favorite can work against the lead (at least with Oscars). Remember Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls and Julie Chrisite for Away from Her? But, Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds, like Mo’Nique, should be shoe-in for supporting actor.
Thanks for the fun post, PCN.
Pop Culture Nerd
December 16, 2009 at 7:42 pmI read somewhere this is the first time exes are going to duke it out for best director. Wouldn’t it be fun if they were seated at the same table?
I finally saw Fantastic Mr. Fox and liked it but not as much as Up. If anyone picks on Pixar, I’ll show them what backlash really looks like. As for backlash against Murphy and Christie, I didn’t think either deserved the award so I thought it appropriate the hype for them died down. I thought Jackie Earle Haley should’ve won for Little Children and no actress was better than Marion Cotillard that year.
le0pard13
December 17, 2009 at 9:42 amMy money would be on Bigelow in a duke out with Cameron. Ever notice she makes the more tougher, mas macho pictures? Cameron’s are more sensitive ;-). Plus, ex-wife’s are nobody to be messed with (Tiger’s finding that out with Elin).
Pop Culture Nerd
December 17, 2009 at 1:04 pmI just read this morning Elin is moving out. I guess she will be his ex-wife.
Jen Forbus
December 16, 2009 at 5:00 pmI’m with Poncho and Corey in that I haven’t seen hardly any of these movies…I also haven’t been out the theaters a whole lot lately. But on top of that, I pretty much gave up on awards shows some years back, especially the Oscars. I’m so tired of their elite little group and popularity contest. They sealed it for me when they didn’t even nominate Russell Crowe for his A BEAUTIFUL MIND performance. Since I just end up getting irritated I usually avoid them altogether. I’m a spoil sport! Ha!
Poncho
December 16, 2009 at 6:30 pmBut Russell Crowe WAS nominated for A Beautiful Mind and he actually won the GG and the SAG award. The Oscar was given to Denzel Washington, but RC was in the list (in fact, I thought he would win when I saw the show).
Pop Culture Nerd
December 16, 2009 at 7:49 pmOh, I was super annoyed Crowe didn’t win the award! He’s one of my top 10 performances robbed of Oscars.
Jen Forbus
December 17, 2009 at 5:53 amI’m sorry, you guys are right. I was angry because he didn’t win. That performance was incredible. He wasn’t nominated for Cinderella Man…and I believe it was Paul Giamatti who said that his role wasn’t possible without the great performance of RC…
Regardless, Oscar robbed him that year and it was obvious that it was because he had fallen out of grace with the “in group.” I was also made that year because Denzel is a fantastic actor, but that was not his Oscar role…that was a racial move on the part of the Academy who were being criticized for that lack of color.
PCN, you and I are on the same wave-length so often, it’s scary! 🙂
Pop Culture Nerd
December 17, 2009 at 12:56 pmI love when you get fired up about something, Jen! Ditto what you said about Denzel’s performance that year.
Bailey
December 16, 2009 at 11:57 pmSACHA BARON COHEN was robbed of a nomination for best leading actor in a musical or comedy. His performance EPITOMIZED the meaning of the words “total commitment”…we won’t even talk about the words “risk taking”…….
Pop Culture Nerd
December 17, 2009 at 12:54 pmThat’s true; he was completely committed. Even when I thought he was going to get beaten or killed by terrorists, he stayed in character. That was impressive.
yeti9000
December 23, 2009 at 4:43 amOMG, I am so with you on most of these nominees. You said it all at the end, the most exciting thing about this year’s Globes in gonna be the host!
Long live Ricky Gervais!!! 🙂
Pop Culture Nerd
December 24, 2009 at 12:05 amEven if none of my favorites wins, I’ll probably still enjoy the show because of Gervais. I always start laughing just looking at him.
Julien
December 25, 2009 at 7:22 pmI usually read your posts AND the comments, but there are definitely too many of them here, so I’m passing on them this time. Hope I won’t repeat what has already been said!
Anyway, these nominations are quite exciting!
Here are some of my favorite:
I’d like an award for “500 days of summer”, either as best comedy and/or for great Joseph Gordon-Levitt as best actor!
I’m also supporting Marion Cotillard as best actress for “Nine”. The movie seems to be disappointing but I heard her performance is great!
I’d be glad if my beloved Julianne Moore was awarded the best supporting actress Golden Globe, but I could accept her defeat if it was in favor of your much acclaimed Mo’nique’s winning!
What else? I enjoyed “The hurt locker” and “District 9” a lot, so I hope they’ll get some prizes too.
Oh, and “A prophet” is a rough but fascinating French movie about life in jail with a solid casting (the main actor Tahar Rahim is favorite to get the César for most promising actor next year), so let’s give it the best foreign language film award! (Plus “The white ribbon” already won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year.)
I hope the ceremony will be broadcast here in France, I’d be curious to see Ricky Gervais’s hosting the show!
Pop Culture Nerd
December 27, 2009 at 9:35 pmJoseph Gordon-Levitt was adorable in (500) Days! I’d also be very happy if Marion Cotillard wins because she’s glorious and I have a girl crush on her.
If the show isn’t broadcast in France, I’ll tell you about it here!