Golden Globe Nominations

Cause it's Friday night and I'm not in a mood to do anything except sit at home and feel lazy.

BTW, Because the HFPA cheat (a lot) I've decided to add an extra title in strikethru text incase they decide to go for six nominees.

BEST PICTURE - DRAMA
Babel
Bobby
The Departed
The Queen
United 93
Little Children

I dunno. Babel, The Departed (I wish that movie didn't have the 'The' in the title. Simply Departed sounds a big more intriguing and the 'The' is sorta confusing. What's departed?) and The Queen all seem pretty safe. I went with United 93 because it felt more... European? Yeah, that's it (..???..) and Bobby because that cast is I just think it has more heat than Little Children

BEST PICTURE - MUSICAL/COMEDY
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
The Devil Wear's Prada
Dreamgirls (not The Dreamgirls)
Little Miss Sunshine
A Prairie Home Companion
Stranger than Fiction

Well, the middle three seem pretty darn lock-ish if you ask me. Borat is a phenom and they'll wanna look cool by nominating it. I went with Companion for several reasons (over, say, Stranger than Fiction or Thank You For Smoking) because a) it's got a big cast, b) it's Altman, c) it's a musical and d) they occasionally dole out these solo Best Picture Musical/Comedy nominations (think Best in Show or more similar to Prairie... Everyone Says I Love You)

BEST DIRECTOR
Pedro Almodovar, Volver
Bill Condon, Dreamgirls
Paul Greengrass, United 93
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu, 21 Grams

Condon, Scorse and Frears are safe I reckon and I chose Almodovar cause they probably love Volver, but it's inneligable for Best Picture (foreign language and all). And I stubbornly (some may say) am sticking with Greengrass being a force through the pre-cursors (it'll be him and Scorsese winning a majority of Director prizes methinks).

BEST ACTOR - DRAMA
George Clooney, The Good German
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Hugh Jackman, The Fountain
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness (ugh, this name annoys me)
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Ryan Gosling, HalfNelson

...Yeah, I omitted O'Toole. Not only am I doubting him here, but I'm doubting him with Oscar. As we saw last year with Brokeback Mountain's loss, AMPAS don't like being told what to vote for. Now, omitting O'Toole and substituting in Jackman probably sounds ludicrous, but it's just a crazy predition I've decided to add. I mean, he has had, like, 20 majillion movies this year. Although I wouldn't be surprised to see Ryan Gosling on there. But, still, O'Toole and also Forest Whitaker? They're just as troublesome as Jackman, Clooney, Gosling and all the others ('cept Smith who seems lockish)

BEST ACTRESS - DRAMA
Cate Blanchett, The Good German
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Kate Winslet, Little Children
Sienna Miller, Factory Girl

Okay, so I originally had Blanchett for Scandal and not German, but the Envelope is saying that she is indeed Supporting for Scandal. And they love Blanchett (much moreso than AMPAS), so I put her in. The other four do seem pretty solid, but I wouldn't be surprised to see someone like Miller or, *gasp* Laura Dern just cause they like throwing curveballs.

BEST ACTOR - MUSICAL/COMEDY
Sasha Baron Cohen - Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Aaron Eckhart - Thank You for Smoking
Will Ferrell - Stranger than Fiction
Jamie Foxx - Dreamgirls
Ewan McGregor - Miss Potter
Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Greg Kinnear - Little Miss Sunshine

I'm sure Depp will score a nod here, but I'm putting in a sorta-surprise with McGregor for Miss Potter, which is by no means a confident a guess as Zellweger for the same movie (see below). But I thought I'd throw him in for the fun of it.

BEST ACTRESS - MUSICAL/COMEDY
Annette Bening, Running with Scissors
Beyonce Knowles, Dreamgirls
Gretchen Mol, The Notorious Bettie Page
Merl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Renee Zellweger, Miss Potter
Kirsten Dunst - Marie Antoinette

I would not be surprised to see six nominees in this category this year. I think Streep and Knowles are solid. Bening, well, they like her, right? Same for Zellweger, but has she worn out her welcome? Maybe, but if Miss Potter is the piece of whimsy they're selling it as, I would see it getting in here. And then there's Gretchen Mol who I just have a big hunch about. I don't know why, I just do. Dunst is right there with Mol for the young cutie spot that Scarlett won't be getting this year (or, I don't think she will).

You will notice that I haven't put Abigail Breslin there, and that's because I don't think the HFPA like children. I mean, they didn't nominate Anna Paquin or Keisha Castle-Hughes, which AMPAS loved (and with Breslin looking good for a nod there...) The last young performance I can think of is (teehee) Kirsten Dunst for Interview with the Vampire and (double teehee) Macauley Culkin for Home Alone. Not exactly orthadox choices, hey? Oh, and Jennifer Hudson is indeed supporting. And then of course there's four-time Globe-nominees Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet for The Holiday, which I would normally put in, but... I dunno.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Steve Carell, Little Miss Sunshine
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Michael Sheen, The Queen
Brad Pitt, Babel
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

I think Arkin will get the Oscar nod (and, *gulp*, the WIN), but they love Carell so I'll go with him at the Globes. Murphy, Nicholson and Pitt seem pretty solid with these guys and Michael Sheen is the unknown they'll slot in cause they're generous.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Toni Collette, Little Miss Sunshine
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Sharon Stone, Bobby
Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada

Consider this: Sharon Stone was nominated for Basic Instinct, The Mighty and (justifiably, I might add) for The Muse to go alongside her Oscar-nominated work in Casino for which she also won the Globe. Now, those first three were nowhere near getting Oscar nominations (right?), so I think it's fair to say they like Sharon, which is why I'm predicting her for Bobby (which I am also predicting for Best Picture Drama). Hudson is the lock to win, but the other three ladies (Blanchett, Collette and Kikuchi) look good on paper (the whole Adriana Barraza vs Rinko Kikuchi thing is so topsy turvy. One says Barazza and another says Kikuchi. I went with Kikuchi because based on a heavy and effective method of mathamatics I voted her as 'More Exotic' so I gave her the nod over Barazza. Technical, I know!) So many alternates though, Anika Noni-Rose, Carmen Maura, Jessica Beil and Emma Thompson (and I alternately put them all in at one stage or another) but I went with Emily Blunt. Crikies, I dunno.

BEST SCREENPLAY
Bobby
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Babel

Er, I really don't know.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel
Mark Isham, Bobby
Thomas Newman, The Good German
Phillip Glass, Notes on a Scandal
Alexandre Desplat, The Queen (or The Painted Veil. They seem to like this dude, thankfully)
Alberto Iglesias, Volver

Okay, it seems that some of the major movies in each category (The Departed, Dreamgirls and Little Miss Sunshine have original scores. Or enough of them. Or, i dunno. They did award Moulin Rouge! and The Aviator here despite mininal work. Oh well. I dunno. This list of noms seems doable.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Cars, "Out Town"
Dreamgirls, "Listen"
Dreamgirls, "Love You I Do"
Happy Feet, "The Song of the Heart"
Shut Up & Sing, "The Neighbor"

Umm... this lineup, again, seems doable. Musicals, big stars (Prince! Dixie Chicks!) and whatever Cars' song is classified as (a song I quite like)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Lives of Others
Pan's Labyrinth
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Volver

LOL, i have no idea how they even nominate let alone what will be nominated. Is it based on movies released through the year, or what? I chose these five titles cause they make sense. I had Apocalypto in but then I remembered the incident and thought they will still be frowning up it and substituted it with a second Zhang Yimou title, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles which seems up their alley just as much as Curse of the Golden Flower

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Cars
Happy Feet
Flushed Away
Monster House
A Scanner Darkly

I put A Scanner Darkly in over Over the Hedge for no real reason other than I would hope that the HFPA would use this category for good and not evil (I mean, I liked Over the Hedge but if it's merely 5/5 with Oscar, what's the point of that?!?)

Last Thoughts
I'm gonna love the presenters saying Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan multiple times. And I really wanted to put Shortbus down for something but I didn't know where! Also, I'd love for Heath Ledger to show up as a completely out of the blue Best Actor Drama nominee for Candy (it was released stateside last week)