Awards season officially kicks off with the nominations for the 2012 Golden Globes, and as usual the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) didn’t disappoint by both focusing the Oscar race and throwing in a few head-scratchers. Here’s the breakdown.
BIGGEST WINNERS
Woody Allen should be smiling. Long a favourite of the HFPA, the director’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, gets an impressive awards-season boost thanks to its four Globe nods, including both screenplay and directing for Allen.
And between his acting in The Descendants and directing in The Ides of March, George Clooney will have plenty of reasons to show up.
Ryan Gosling is certainly enjoying his nominations in both Best Actor categories.
As far as sheer numbers, silent film The Artist – an Oscar front-runner since making a splash at Cannes – had the most nominations at six, but The Help and The Descendants are close behind at five.
Usual awards heavyweights the Weinstein Company and HBO lead the film and TV packs with 12 and 18 nominations, respectively.
British series Downton Abbey, which airs in the U.S. as part of Masterpiece Theater, received the most TV nominations, with four.
BIGGEST SNUBS
The most glaring omission to awards watchers is Stephen Spielberg. Even though his two films, War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin, are nominated, he was edged out of the directing category.
David Fincher might be feeling overlooked as well, as his The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo only pulled in nominations for Trent Reznor’s score and Rooney Mara’s performance.
Also, not a single nomination for British spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
And on the TV side, fans were hoping critical darling Community could pick up some Comedy nominations to help its fight against impending cancellation, but the series was completely overlooked.
BIGGEST SURPRISES
Many had believed Disney would run The Help on the Musical or Comedy side for the Globes, giving the popular hit an easier chance at picking up some trophies, but its inclusion in Drama means presumed Oscar front-runners Viola Davis and Meryl Streep (for The Iron Lady) are going head-to-head earlier than expected.
In TV, the biggest shock has to be the HFPA’s apparent love of Ryan Murphy. While a Best Series – Musical or Comedy nod for Glee isn’t surprising, the organization apparently flipped for his new less-than-acclaimed horror series, American Horror Story, giving it mentions for Best Series, Drama and Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Lange.
BIGGEST REASON TO WATCH
Aside from the showdown between Streep and Davis, the other big reason to watch is to see what Ricky Gervais does to make the HFPA regret inviting him back as host.
The organization is notorious for its love of celebrities, so, not so surprising are nominations for Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – her In the Land of Blood and Honey is up for Best Foreign Language Film.
If Johnny Depp shows up to support Best Animated Feature nominee Rango, they’ll have done their job.
