The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their Golden Globe nominations this week, but there were no truly dominate films out of the 14 theatrical categories.

The categories and nominations are...

Best Motion Picture - Drama

• American Gangster
• Atonement
• Eastern Promises
• The Great Debaters
• Michael Clayton
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

• Across the Universe
• Charlie Wilson's War
• Hairspray
• Juno
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

• Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• Julie Christie for Away from Her
• Jodie Foster for The Brave One
• Angelina Jolie for A Mighty Heart
• Keira Knightley for Atonement

• George Clooney for Michael Clayton
• Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood
• James McAvoy for Atonement
• Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises
• Denzel Washington for American Gangster

• Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Ryan Gosling for Lars and the Real Girl
• Tom Hanks for Charlie Wilson's War
• Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Savages
• John C. Reilly for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

• Amy Adams for Enchanted
• Nikki Blonsky for Hairspray
• Helena Bonham Carter for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose
• Ellen Page for Juno

• Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men
• Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War
• John Travolta for Hairspray
• Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton

• Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There
• Julia Roberts for Charlie Wilson's War
• Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
• Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone
• Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton

• Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men
• Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Ridley Scott for American Gangster
• Joe Wright for Atonement

• Christopher Hampton for Atonement
• Aaron Sorkin for Charlie Wilson's War
• Ronald Harwood for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Diablo Cody for Juno
• Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men

• Enchanted for "That's How You Know"
• Grace Is Gone for "Grace Is Gone"
• Into the Wild for "Guaranteed"
• Love in the Time of Cholera for "Despedida"
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story for "Walk Hard"

• Dario Marianelli for Atonement
• Howard Shore for Eastern Promises
• Clint Eastwood for Grace Is Gone
• Michael Brook for Into the Wild
• Alberto Iglesias for The Kite Runner

• Bee Movie
• Ratatouille
• The Simpsons Movie

• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania)
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (France)
• The Kite Runner (United States)
• Se, Jie (China)
• Persepolis (France)

• It's hard to point to one film and say, "That's the big winner!"
• Atonement led the way with seven nominations, but I don't think it's a favorite to win any of those. If I were to put money on it, Keira Knightley probably has the best chance to win, but Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama is particularly weak this year.
• On the other hand, No Country for Old Men earned only four nominations compared to Atonement's seven, but feels like it will be the bigger film come award night.
• I was expecting The Great Debaters to earn more nominations than American Gangster, but it only earned one. That was for Best Picture - Drama, which is the most prestigious award, but I was expecting more.
• Michael Clayton picked up five nods, including three for acting.
• Usually the Drama categories dominates the Musical or Comedy categories when it comes to picking up Oscar nominations, but this year Charlie Wilson's War, Juno, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street should be contenders come Oscar night.
• Speaking of Juno, Ellen Page and Diablo Cody both earned more nominations to go with their Independent Spirit Awards nominations. And I think they have to be considered favorites to earn at least nominations for the guild awards and Oscars.
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story earned not one, but two Golden Globe Nominations. Some people were comparing the film to recent spoofs like Date Movie or Epic Movie. Hopefully this will end that talk.
• The Savages only managed one nomination, which was a bit of a shock. The fact that it went to Philip Seymour Hoffman was not. In fact, he earned two nominations today.
• Best Animated Film brought two shocks. Firstly, Bee Movie earned a nomination. Secondly, Persepolis did not. That latter film did earn a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, on the other hand.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2007-12-13