Golden Globe Nominations Announced: ‘The Artist’ Leads, ‘The Ides Of March’ Surprises, ‘Extremely Loud’ Snubbed

We've only just recovered from yesterday's SAG award nominations, where "The Artist" continued to lock down its frontrunner status, and "The Help" picked up a strong haul of nods, while the likes of "Shame" and "Hugo" were shut out completely (among the many snubs detailed here). A mere 24 hours later, and we're back on the awards beat, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announcing the annual Golden Globe nominations this morning.

The odd quartet of Woody Harrelson, Sofia Vergara, Rashida Jones and Gerard Butler were on hand to reveal the nods, and well… forget it Jake, it's the Golden Globes. As ever, the HFPA didn't quite do what anyone was expecting. The biggest winners were all films well-established in the awards race: front-runner "The Artist" took six nods, followed closely by "The Descendants" and "The Help" with five, but the biggest surprise came with the resurgence of "The Ides of March," mostly ignored during the awards season so far, with four nominations, including Best Drama and Best Director, while "Midnight In Paris" and "Moneyball" also managed four each, although that was pretty much expected. 

"Albert Nobbs" and "My Week With Marilyn" both took three nods, incidentally, while "50/50" snuck into the Best Comedy/Musical category and picked up a nomination for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Best Actor. "Bridesmaids" also managed the same for the film and the star, although Melissa McCarthy, who's been on a roll of late, missed out in Supporting. "Hugo" did respectably too, with three nominations, certainly keeping its Oscar hopes alive, while Michael Fassbender won a Best Actor nom after losing out at the SAGs, and Tilda Swinton looks more and more like a lock for a Best Actress slot after picking up a nod here. And the HFPA is just as unable to resist that dreamy Ryan Gosling as anyone else, nominating him as Best Actor in both the Comedy/Musical category, for "Crazy Stupid Love," and Drama, for "The Ides of March."

And there are certain other curios that have to be put down to the Globes' love of stars, and the splitting of the categories; there's no way that the ladies of "Carnage," who were both nominated, will figure into the race, and neither will Brendan Gleeson for "The Guard," although he's arguably more deserving than some locked into that category. But what were the real snubs?

Well, "War Horse" did manage a Best Drama nomination, in an extended field of six, but Spielberg lost out in Best Director, and the film only picked up one other nomination, for John Williams' score. More serious was "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," which won exactly zero nominations, despite the presence of Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in the cast. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" also got nothing, although that's par for the course these days, presenter Woody Harrelson missed out for "Rampart," and "The Muppets," widely expected to figure into the Best Original Song category in a big way, missed out on that, as well as the big Comedy/Musical nomination. 

As we've said before, the HFPA isn't exactly the most reliable of bodies, although they did at least manage to avoid the disgrace of last year's "The Tourist"/"Red"/"Burlesque"/"Alice in Wonderland" nods, so any Oscar prognostication based on these should be taken with a big pinch of salt. However, there will be knock-on effects, from both this and the SAGs yesterday, and we'll discuss those in our awards column tomorrow. In the meantime, The Golden Globes will take place on Sunday January 15th.

Best Picture – Drama
"The Descendants"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"The Ides Of March"
"Moneyball"
 "War Horse"

Best Picture – Comedy/Musical
"50/50"
"The Artist"
"Bridesmaids"
"Midnight In Paris"
"My Week With Marilyn"

Best Director
Woody Allen – "Midnight In Paris"
George Clooney – "The Ides of March"
Michel Hazavinicius – "The Artist"
Alexander Payne – "The Descendants"
Martin Scorsese – "Hugo"

Best Actress – Comedy/Musical
Jodie Foster – "Carnage"
Charlize Theron – "Young Adult"
Kristin Wiig – "Bridesmaids"
Michelle Williams – "My Week With Marilyn"
Kate Winslet – "Carnage"

Best Actor – Comedy/Musical
Jean Dujardin – "The Artist"
Brendan Gleeson – "The Guard"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – "50/50"
Ryan Gosling – "Crazy, Stupid, Love"
Owen Wilson – "Midnight In Paris"

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"

Best Actor – Drama
George Clooney – "The Descendants"
Leonardo DiCaprio – "J. Edgar"
Michael Fassbender – "Shame"
Ryan Gosling – "The Ides of March"
Brad Pitt – "Moneyball"

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh – "My Week With Marilyn"
Albert Brooks – "Drive"
Jonah Hill – "Moneyball"
Viggo Mortensen – "A Dangerous Method"
Christopher Plummer – "Beginners"

Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo, "The Artist"
Jessica Chastain – "The Help"
Janet McTeer – "Albert Nobbs"
Octavia Spencer, "The Help"
Shailene Woodley, "The Descendants"

Best Screenplay
Michel Hazavanicius – "The Artist"
Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne – "The Descendants"
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon – "The Ides of March"
Woody Allen – "Midnight In Paris"
Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian – "Moneyball"

Best Animated Film
"The Adventures Of Tintin"
"Arthur Christmas"
"Cars 2"
"Puss In Boots"
"Rango"

Best Foreign-Language Film
"A Separation" (Iran)
The Flowers Of War" (China)
"The Kid With The Bike" (Belgium)
"In The Land Of Blood and Honey" (USA)
"The Skin I Live In" (Spain)

Best Original Score
Ludovic Bource – "The Artist"
Abel Korzeniowski – "W.E."
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"
Howard Shore – "Hugo"
John Williams – "War Horse"

Best Original Song
"Hello Hello" – "Gnomeo & Juliet – Elton John
"Lay Your Head Down" – "Albert Nobbs" – Sinead O'Connor
"The Living Proof" – "The Help" – Mary J. Blige
"The Keeper" – "Machine Gun Preacher" – Gerard Butler
"Masterpiece" – "W.E." – Madonna