Up In the Air leads Golden Globe nominations

The Hurt Locker, popular this week with the LA and New York critics groups, will vie for best drama with Up In The Air, Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Avatar. Meanwhile Nine competes for the musical or comedy prize against 500 Days Of Summer, The Hangover, It’s Complicatedand Julie & Julia.

Kathryn Bigelow continues a strong awards season thus far with a director nomination alongside her former husband James Cameron for Avatar, Tarantino, Reitman, and Clint Eastwood for Invictus. Reitman and Tarantino are also nominated for screenplay and could face strong competition from Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker.

A wide field of nominees was notable for its absentees. Jane Campion’s Bright Star, featuring an acclaimed performance by Abbie Cornish, was shut out, while neither Lee Daniels, Rob Marshall nor the Coen Brothers make the directors cut for Precious, Nine, and A Serious Man, respectively. Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones is represented in the form of a solitary supporting actor mention for Stanley Tucci, and Robert De Niro for Everybody’s Fine and Alec Baldwin for It’s Complicated are absent in the acting categories. The Road and The Men Who Stare At Goats were also overlooked.

Two actresses – Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock – are nominated twice for acting awards. Streep dominates the musical or comedy category with It’s Complicatedand Julie & Julia, while Bullock rounds off her best ever year at the box office with a musical or comedy nod for The Proposal and dramatic recognition for The Blind Side.

British stars overshadow the dramatic actress category with Helen Mirren for The Last Station, breakout Carey Mulligan for An Education and Emily Blunt for The Young Victoria all up against Bullock and Gabourey Sidibe for Precious.

The dramatic actors category features heavyweight contenders Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, George Clooney for Up In The Air, Colin Firth for A Single Man and Morgan Freeman for Invictus, with Brothers’ Tobey Maguire filling the fifth spot, possibly at the expense of The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner.

Matt Damon emerged with two nominations – one for best comedy or musical actor for The Informant! and the other as supporting actor for Invictus alongside the favourite Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds. In the supporting a actress category, Mo’Nique would appear to be the one to beat for Precious, although Anna Kendrick for Up In The Air and Julianne Moore for A Single Man will make it tough for her.

A prestigious foreign-language category pits Broken Embraces against The White Ribbon, The Maid, A Prophet and Baaria.

Going by the companies, films from The Weinstein Company and Relativity Media drew 12 nominations apiece, followed by Universal and Paramount on seven.

The 67^th Golden Globes ceremony is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on January 17.

The nominations:

Best motion picture – drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire
Up In The Air

Best motion picture - musical or comedy
500 days Of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated!
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up In The Air
Quentin Taratino, Inglourious Basterds

Best animated feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
Up
Cloudy With A chance Of Meatballs
The Frog And The Princess

Best actor in a motion picture, drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up In The Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Best actress in a motion picture, drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe, Precious

Best performance by an actor in a musical or comedy
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 500 Days Of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best performance by an actress in a musical or comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cottillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep,It’s Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best supporting actor
Matt Damon Invictus
Woody Harrelson The Messenger
Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best supporting actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga,Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Best foreign film
Broken Embraces
The White Ribbon
The Maid
A Prophet
Baaria

Best screenplay - Motion Picture
District 9, Neil Blomkap, Terri Tatchell
The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
It’s Complicated, Nancy Meyers
Up In The Air, Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

Best original song - Motion Picure
The Weary Kind, T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham (Crazy Heart)
I Want To Come Home, Paul McCartney, (Everybody’s Fine)
Cinema Italiano, Maury Yeston, (Nine)
Winter, U2, Bono (Brothers)
I Will See You, James Horner, Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell (Avatar)

Best original score - Motion Picture
The Informant!, Marvin Hamlisch
Up, Michael Giacchino
Where The Wild Things Are, Carter Burwell, Karen Orzolek
Avatar, James Horner
A Single Man, Abel Korzeniowski

Best Television Series - Drama
Big Love (HBO)
Dexter (Showtime)
House (Fox)
Mad Men (AMC)
True Blood (HBO)

Best Performance By An Actress In a Television Series - Drama
Glenn Close, Damages
January Jones, Mad Men
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Anna Paquin, True Blood
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Best Performance By An Actor In a Television Series - Drama
Simon Baker, The Mentalist
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
Bill Paxton, Big Love

Best Television Series - Comdey of Musical
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
Glee (Fox)
Modern Family (ABC)
The Office (NBC)

Best Performance By An Actress In a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
Toni Collette, United States Of Tara
Courteney Cox, Cougar Town
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Lea Michele, Glee

Best Performance By An Actor In a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
Alec Bladwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
David Duchovny, Californication
Thomas Jane, Hung
Matthew Morrison, Glee

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Georgia O’Keeffe (Lifetime Television)
Grey Gardens (HBO)
Into The Storm (HBO)
Little Dorrit (PBS)
Take Chance (HBO)

Best Performance By An Actress In A Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Joan Allen, Georgia O’ Keeffe
Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens
Jessica Lange, Grey Gardens
Anna Paquin, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
Sigourney Weaver, Prayers For Bobby

Best Performance By An Actor In A Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made For Television
Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance
Kenneth Branagh, Wallender: One Step Behind
Chiwetel Ejiorfor, Endgame
Brendan Gleeson, Into The Storm
Jeremy Irons, Georgia O’Keeffe

Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In A Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Jane Adams, Hung
Rose Byrne, Damages
Jane Lynch, Glee
Janet McTeer, Into The Storm
Chloe Sevigny, Big Love

Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role In a Series, Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made For Television
Michael Emerson, Lost
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
William Hurt, Damages
John Lithgow, Dexter
Jeremy Piven, Entourage