The best thing about The Golden Globes is the way that it recognises comedy, making for a typically light-hearted event; the Golden Globes nominations have just been announced, so what films will be making for a ho-ho chortlefest this time?
Well Babel, mainly, the absurdly depressing story about how one random-seeming depressing act impacts on a raft of other depressing characters across the globe until everyone ends up so depressed that they just stay in bed all day. Babel received the most Golden Globes nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Drama, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actress (again), Best Screenplay, Best Score and Best Film To Show An Unhappy Person If You Want Them To Fling Themselves Off A Building The Instant it Finishes.
But you want to find out what got nominated for the other Golden Globes, don't you. Don't you?
When it comes to movie awards only The Oscars are bigger than The Golden Globes. For a start, the Golden Globes are seen as a key Oscars prediction tool – much more so than, say, the smelly old National Board Of Review. Also, where most awards ceremonies tend to focus on overlong self-important films that couldn't be further up their own arses if you dislocated their spines and strapped suction pads to their tongues, The Golden Globes are happy to give awards to everything from drama to comedy to TV shows, meaning that Jason Lee can turn up and still feel like a filmstar instead of that bloke from the sitcom with the funny fat man in it.
And The Golden Globes are always there to throw up a few nuggets of controversy too – like when Reese Witherspoon wore Kirsten Dunst's old dress last year and Melanie Griffiths forgot who made her dress. Good job The Golden Globes only take place once a year or this kind of screaming excitement might just make our heads explode. But we're straying from the point – the nominations for The Golden Globes were announced earlier today, and you're eager to find out who might be up for what, right?
Well as we've already pointed out, depressing Brad Pitt flick Babel is way out in front this year, but what of the others? It's a good day for both Leonardo DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood, as they've both scored double nominations in one category each. DiCaprio is up for Best Actor in both Blood Diamond and The Departed, while Clint Eastwood's 'Hooray For America!'/ 'America Sucks!' double header of Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima are both in the Best Director category.
But The Golden Globes aren't all about joyless movies that remind you with thumping regularity how hostile and gloomy the world is – there are also the Golden Globes comedy nominations, which include nods for Little Miss Sunshine – about a suicidal depressive, a mute teenager and a bankrupt man carrying the corpse of their dead relative around in a bus; Thank You For Smoking – about the cold-heartedness of big corporations; and Borat – about an anti-Semite kidnapping a porn star. Here are the important Golden Globe nominations in full. You can find out the unimportant ones for yourself if you're that interested:
Best Motion Picture – Drama
Babel
Bobby
The Departed
Little Children
The Queen
Best Actress – Drama
Penelope Cruz – Volver
Judi Dench – Notes On A Scandal
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Sherrybaby
Helen Mirren – The Queen
Kate Winslet – Little Children
Best Actor – Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Departed
Peter O'Toole – Venus
Will Smith – In Pursuit Of Happyness
Forest Whitaker – The Last King Of Scotland
Best Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical
Borat
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
Thank You For Smoking
Best Actress – Comedy Or Musical
Annette Bening – Running With Scissors
Toni Collette – Little Miss Sunshine
Beyonce Knowles – Dreamgirls
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Renee Zellweger – Miss Potter
Best Actor – Comedy Or Musical
Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat
Johnny Depp – Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Aaron Eckhart – Thank You For Smoking
Chiwetel Ejiofor – Kinky Boots
Will Ferrell – Stranger Than Fiction
Oh, and Ben Affleck got a Best Supporting Actor nomination, which we're putting down to an administrative error that'll get ironed out soon.
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