And the Golden Globe Nominees Are:

“To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.” 

This past Tuesday at 5 Am, as has been done for decades, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominees for outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television.

They are an organization of 90 “journalists” who report on Hollywood for foreign publications and media outlets.

Some of these personalities come off like Borat without the irony, but they’ve gained an air of legitimacy over the years in spite of an overwhelming tendency toward sycophantic praise for even the worst films and performers.
Their award is called The Golden Globe, and for most of their 68 ceremonies in 66 years, that nominee list has been a true foreshadowing for the Oscars.

Ricky Gervais, who upstaged all of the winners and the ceremony itself last year, will again be hosting the televised broadcast when it airs live on January 16th from the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Here is the list of nominees:

The Cecil B. DeMille Award will be presented to Robert DeNiro.

Best Motion Picture Drama:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama:
Halle Berry – Frankie and Alice
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama:
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling – Blue Valentine
Mark Wahlberg – The Fighter

Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical:
Alice in Wonderland
Burlesque
The Kids Are All Right
Red
The Tourist

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical:
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Anne Hathaway – Love and Other Drugs
Angelina Jolie – The Tourist
Julianne Moore – The Kids Are All Right
Emma Stone – Easy A

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical:
Johnny Depp – Alice in Wonderland
Johnny Depp – The Tourist
Paul Giamatti – Barney’s Version
Jake Gyllenhaal – Love and Other Drugs
Kevin Spacey – Casino Jack

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Drama):
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Mila Kunis – Black Swan
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Jack Weaver – Animal Kingdom

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Drama):
Christian Bale – The Fighter
Michael Douglas – Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Andrew Garfield – The Social Network
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

Best Animated Feature:
Despicable Me
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Tangled
Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Language Film:
Biutiful (Mexico, Spain)
The Concert (France)
The Edge (Russia)
I Am Love (Italy)
In a Better World (Denmark)

Best Director – Motion Picture:
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
Christopher Nolan – Inception
David O. Russell – The Fighter

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture:
Simon Beaufoy, Danny Boyle – 127 Hours
Christopher Nolan – Inception
Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko – The Kids Are All Right
David Seidler – The King’s Speech
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network

Best Original Score – Motion Picture:
Alexandre Desplat – The King’s Speech
Danny Elfman – Alice In Wonderland
A. R. Rahman – 127 Hours
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – The Social Network
Hans Zimmer – Inception

Best Original Song – Motion Picture:
“Bound to You” – Burlesque
“Coming Home” – Country Strong
“I See the Light” – Tangled
“There’s a Place For Us” – Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
“You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” – Burlesque

Best Television Drama:
Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
The Good Wife
Mad Men
The Walking Dead

Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series – Drama:
Julianna Margolies – The Good Wife
Elisabeth Moss – Mad Men
Piper Perabo – Covert Affairs
Katey Sagal – Sons of Anarchy
Kyra Sedgwick – The Closer

Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Drama:
Steve Buscemi – Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall – Dexter
Jon Hamm – Mad Men
Hugh Laurie – House

Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical:
30 Rock
The Big Bang Theory
The Big C
Glee
Modern Family
Nurse Jackie

Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series – Comedy or Musical:
Toni Collette – United States of Tara
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Laura Linney – The Big C
Lea Michele – Glee

Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Comedy or Musical:
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
Steve Carell – The Office
Thomas Jane – Hung
Matthew Morrison – Glee
Jim Parsons – The Big Bang Theory

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made For Television:
Carlos (Sundance Channel)
The Pacific (HBO)
Pillars of the Earth (Starz)
Temple Grandin (HBO)
You Don’t Know Jack (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television:
Hayley Atwell – Pillars of the Earth
Claire Daines – Temple Grandin
Judi Dench – Return to Cranford
Romola Garai – Emma
Jennifer Love Hewitt – The Client List

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television:
Idris Elba – Luther
Ian McShane – Pillars of the Earth
Al Pacino – You Don’t Know Jack
Dennis Quaid – The Special Relationship
Edgar Ramirez – Carlos

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television:
Hope Davis – The Special Relationship
Jane Lynch – Glee
Kelly MacDonald – Boardwalk Empire
Julia Stiles – Dexter
Sofia Vergara – Modern Family

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television:
Scott Caan – Hawaii Five-O
Chris Colfer – Glee
Chris Noth – The Good Wife
Eric Stonestreet – Modern Family
David Strathairn – Temple Grandin

There’s a lot of ground covered there, and I’m not even going to attempt to claim that I’ve seen all the movies or shows that have been nominated, so I’ll spend the next month playing catch-up and comment about the winners in January. I’ll also supply a list of past Golden Globe controversies.

THE LIST:
Best Film Released Last Week: The Fighter
Looking forward to: Tr2n
Best DVD Released This Week: The Quintessential Guy Maddin
Best DVD Release Next Week: Futurama Volume 5
Best Book on shelves right now: The Walking Dead Volume 13 by Kirkman & Adlard
Best Track of the Moment: Sea of Simulation by Daft Punk
Best Album I haven’t Heard Yet: “Tabula Rasa (Special Edition)” by Arvo Pärt
Best Video Game I Haven’t Mastered Yet: Dance Central for Kinect 360 (it’s difficult!)