Golden Globe nominations announced: Big movies shown big love

The Golden Globe nominations were announced on Thursday, kicking off the Oscar season. Carol, The Revenant, The Big Short and Steve Jobs led the pool, while Netflix displayed its superiority in the TV department.

The Golden Globe nominations have been announced and Carol, a lesbian romance set in 1950s New York and starring Cate Blanchett, topped the pool which also included The Revenant and The Big Short on Thursday, as Hollywood’s awards season revs into high gear ahead of the all-important Oscars.

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant and Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road.

The film -- starring Blanchett as a housewife who falls for a store clerk played by Rooney Mara -- earned five nominations, including for best motion picture drama and for its two star actresses.

This photo provided by Paramount Pictures shows, Jeremy Strong, from left, Rafe Spall, Hamish Linklater, Steve Carell, Jeffry Griffin and Ryan Gosling in the film, The Big Short. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best motion picture comedy or musical. (AP)

Financial crisis film The Big Short, revenge thriller The Revenant and biopic Steve Jobs followed close behind with four nominations each for the Globes, which will be handed out in Beverly Hills on January 10.

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Apart from Carol, the other best motion picture drama nominees are Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, harrowing kidnap tale Room and Spotlight, which recounts the Boston Globe’s investigation into sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

In this image released by A24 Films, Brie Larson, left, and Jacob Tremblay appear in a scene from the film, Room. Larson was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best actress in a motion picture drama for her role in the film. (AP)

In the race for best comedy or musical film are The Big Short, David O. Russell dramedy Joy, space blockbuster The Martian, zany caper Spy and Amy Schumer’s breakout film Trainwreck.

In this image released by Universal Pictures shows Amy Schumer, foreground, and Bill Hader in a scene from the comedy, Trainwreck. Schumer was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best actress in a motion picture musical or comedy for her role in the film. (AP)

Timothy Gray, awards editor at industry magazine Variety, said the nominations reflected the cross-section of films in the running for this year’s prizes.

“There is a wide range here when you’ve got Carol, which is this 1952 romance, or a film like Brooklyn, and then you’ve got Mad Max and The Martian which are big spectacles,” he told AFP. “That’s a good mix in there.”

“The Golden Globes are encompassing a lot of what’s going on in film.” The Globes nominations were announced a day after the Screen Actors Guild award contenders. Trumbo topped that list with three nods, including best ensemble cast and best lead actor for Bryan Cranston.

This image released by Pixar-Disney shows Spot, voiced by Jack Bright, left, and Arlo, voiced by Raymond Ochoa, in a scene from The Good Dinosaur. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best animated film. (AP)

Tinseltown’s awards season culminates with the Oscars on February 28. In the category for best actress in a drama, apart from Blanchett and Mara, Brie Larson was nominated for her portrayal of a mother held captive with her young son in Room, and Alicia Vikander earned a nod for her role alongside Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, a film about transgender pioneer Lili Elbe.

Also nominated in that category was Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn, a 1950s tale about immigration. For best actor in a drama, the nominees are Cranston, Redmayne, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant, Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs and Will Smith for Concussion, a story about a pathologist who diagnosed degenerative brain disease in American football players.

The nominations veered from the predictions of industry experts, who had bet on Spotlight and The Revenant getting the most nods.

This photo provided by Twentieth Century Fox shows, Leonardo DiCaprio in a scene from the film, The Revenant. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best motion picture drama. (AP)

Critics are predicting that DiCaprio will finally take home his first Oscar for his role in the latter, an American biographical epic set in the 1800s and inspired by legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass.

In the best foreign movie category, four European films and one from Latin America made the cut -- The Brand New Testament (Belgium/France/Luxembourg), The Club (Chile), The Fencer (Finland/Germany/Estonia), Mustang (France) and Son of Saul (Hungary).

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Christian Harting, left, and Geza Rohrig in a scene from Son of Saul. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best foreign language film on Thursday. (AP)

- Netflix leads TV nominations -

On the television front, no single series stood out from the pack, with six earning three Globes nominations each -- American Crime, Fargo, Mr. Robot, Outlander, Transparent, and Wolf Hall.

Streaming pioneer Netflix led the overall television nominations with eight nods, including two each for drug cartel drama Narcos and Orange is the New Black, a comedy set in a women’s prison.

This image released by Netflix shows Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix Original Series Narcos. The series was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best television drama. (AP)

Among the acting highlights, Vikander, Lily Tomlin, Mark Rylance and Idris Elba each earned two nominations.

Netflix also made a breakthrough at the SAG nominations Wednesday earning 10 nods and overtaking HBO for the first time in a top awards context.

“When Netflix started not so long ago, it was a company that delivered DVDs via the post office,” Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, told AFP. “Today they are turning out to be one of the most exciting places on television.”

This image released by USA shows Rami Malek in a scene from Mr. Robot. The series was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best television drama. (AP)

Although more high-profile than the SAGs, the Golden Globes are seen as less of an indicator of Oscars glory, as a relatively small group of non-US journalists -- the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) -- chooses the winners, rather than the industry itself.

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The HFPA is made up of some 90 entertainment editors and writers from 55 countries who report on the industry year-round.

In this image released by BBC America, Idris Elba appears in a scene from Luther. Elba was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best actor in a limited series or motion picture made for TV for his role. (AP)

The January 10 ceremony will be hosted by British comedian Ricky Gervais and will honour actor Denzel Washington for his contribution to cinema.

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