'Up in the Air,' 'Nine' lead the Golden Globes field

'Avatar,' 'Inglourious Basterds' and 'Invictus' also get Globes support

Tuesday, Dec 15, 2009 9:38 AM

Daniel Fienberg

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'Up in the Air,' 'Nine' lead the Golden Globes field

Penelope Cruz of 'Nine'

Credit: The Weinstein Company

"Up in the Air" and "Nine" were the leading nominees for the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards, announced on Tuesday (Dec. 15) morning in Beverly Hills.

With six nods, "Up in the Air" topped the field, tapping a nomination for Best Motion Picture, Drama and also taking nods for Jason Reitman as director and co-writer. George Clooney, who plays an emotionally disconnected termination expert traveling the country firing people and accumulating frequent flier miles, was nominated for best actor, while Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick both earned nods for supporting actress.

Joining "Up in the Air" in the prestige Motion Picture, Drama category are "Avatar" and "Inglourious Basterds," which picked up four nominations apiece, including nods for their respective directors, James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino. "Basterds" earned Tarantino a second nomination for screenplay, plus a nod for supporting actor Christophe Waltz. The other two "Avatar" nods were for James Horner's score and the song by Leona Lewis.

Rounding out the drama best picture nominees were "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire" and "The Hurt Locker," which both received three nominations apiece.

While "Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow made the Best Director field, "Precious" helmer Lee Daniels was snubbed in favor of "Invictus" director Clint Eastwood. "Precious" still picked up acting nods for Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique and although "Invictus" was left out of the Best Picture field, it earned acting nominations for Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

That meant that the Best Director category, usually seen as a sign of Oscar support, didn't include a single one of the directors from the Best Picture, Comedy field.

"Nine" led the way in Best Picture, Musical-Comedy, one of the film's five nominations. It was joined by "The Hangover," "Julie & Julia," "It's Complicated" and "(500) Days of Summer."

The other nominations for "Nine" came for lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis, lead actress Marion Cotillard, supporting actress Penelope Cruz and for the song "Cinema Italiano."

The contenders for Best Animated feature are "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," "Coraline," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "The Princess and the Frog" and "Up."

In the other best feature category, Best Foreign Language Film, the nominees were "Baaria" (Italy), "Broken Embraces" (Spain), "The Maid" (Chile), "A Prophet" (France) and "The White Ribbon" (Germany).

One of the big stories for the movie side of the Golden Globe nominations was actors double-dipping, as three different actors picked up multiple nominations.

In addition to his supporting actor nod for "Invictus," Damon is nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy for "The Informant!," while Sandra Bullock pulled off Best Actress in a Comedy and Best Actress in a Drama nominations for "The Proposal" and "The Blind Side."

At least neither Damon nor Bullock have to compete with themselves. In the Best Actress, Comedy category, Meryl Streep of "Julie & Julia" will have to go head-to-head with Meryl Street from "It's Complicated."

The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards, hosted by Ricky Gervais, will air live on NBC on January 17 at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT.

THE COMPLETE LIST OF GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES.