Golden Globe Nominations Are Out

Even though I almost never watch them I have a huge fascination of awards shows. I think it has something to do with being an obsessive lister and always ranking things myself. To see a big group of experts rank the things I love as well is quite enjoyable for me.

Of course, the fact that they rarely get things right is upsetting to me, but what are you going to do?

This year's Golden Globe nominations were announced yesterday and I find myself strangely okay with them. Sure, there were the glaring exceptions from place to place (the insistence of not putting Up in Best Picture category but in Best Animated Film, the lack of a nomination for Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker, nothing at all for Battlestar Galactica's last season), but in an odd year they did strangely well.

See below for all of the nominations and who I am pulling for in each category (they are the bolded ones). I'm still behind on my movie watching (Up in the Air and Avatar this weekend!), but I'm catching up. Any category I haven't seen anything in I just didn't make a choice. Seems fair to me.

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sadibe, Precious

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Julia Roberts, Duplicity

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or 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

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Mo-Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz, Nine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Best Animated Feature Film

Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Princess and the Frog
Up

Best Foreign Language Film

Barria
Broken Embraces
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
The Maid

Best Director - Motion Picture

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Up in the Air
It's Complicated
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

"I Will See You," Avatar
"The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart
"Winter," Brothers
"Cinema Italiano," Nine
"I Want to Come Home," Everybody's Fine

Best Television Series - Drama

Big Love
Dexter
House
Mad Men
True Blood

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama

Glenn Close – Damages
January Jones – Mad Men
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Anna Paquin – True Blood
Kyra Sedgwick – The Closer

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama

Simon Baker – The Mentalist
Michael C. Hall – Dexter
Jon Hamm – Mad Men
Hugh Laurie – House
Bill Paxton – Big Love

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

30 Rock
Entourage
Glee
Modern Family
The Office

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Toni Collette – United States Of Tara
Courteney Cox – Cougar Town
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Lea Michele – Glee

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
Steve Carell – The Office
David Duchovny – Californication
Thomas Jane – Hung
Matthew Morrison – Glee

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Jane Adams – Hung
Rose Byrne – Damages
Jane Lynch – Glee
Janet McTeer – Into The Storm
Chlo Sevigny – Big Love

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Michael Emerson – Lost
Neil Patrick Harris – How I Met Your Mother
William Hurt – Damages
John Lithgow – Dexter
Jeremy Piven – Entourage

You're on fire Golden Globes!

Slumdog Millionaire

Wow.

I'm impressed.

For once, an awards show did pretty fantastic. The Golden Globes were last night and they were strangely accurate, at least in terms of mirroring my opinion on a lot of major categories. While they weren't exactly reflective of my opinions, I at least found the alternatives they selected to be good enough and reasonable exceptions to what I thought were the best choices.

Examples of entirely accurate choices (in my opinion of course):

Slumdog Millionaire for Best Drama (Yay!!!!!)
Mickey Rourke for Best Actor in a Drama
Colin Farrell for Best Actor in a Comedy
Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Acotr (Duh.)
Wall-E for Best Animated Feature
Danny Boyle for Best Director (Yay!!!!!)
Best Screenplay (More Slumdog! Yay!!!!!)
Best Original Score (Slumdog mania! Yay!!!!!)

Of course, the TV awards were pretty weak with the exception of 30 Rock's dominance but you really can't have them all. Once again, NPH was absolutely robbed, but that happens always.

All in all, I was very impressed at least on the movie side. I'm glad to say that Slumdog Millionaire is pretty much locked in at this point for a Best Picture nomination, which excites me to no end. Yay!!!!!