With such an eclectic and crowded year, the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association were spoiled for choice when they picked their honorees. No one had been able to predict this year’s nominations, yet no one was surprised when they were announced this morning. Each one of these nominations was justly merited.

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and David O. Russell’s American Hustle led the pack with 7 nods each, including best picture, best director and other acting categories for Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper.

These nominations will undoubtedly help catapult these films to solid front-runners on the road to the coveted Oscars, considering that the Globes are closely watched by Academy voters.

12 Years A Slave will run against Captain Phillips, Gravity, Philomena and Rush in the best dramatic film category, while American Hustle will compete against Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska and The Wolf of Wall Street for best musical and comedy category.

In the best director category, McQueen and O. Russell will compete with Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity, Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips and Alexander Payne for Nebraska.

The Golden Globes offer two categories for best lead actor and actress: one for drama and another for musical comedy.

Joining Ejiofor in the best actor in drama category are Idris Elba for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips, Matthew McConnaughey for Dallas Buyers Club and Robert Redford for All Is Lost. While in the best actor in a comedy or musical, Bale will vie with Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis, Joaquin Phoenix for Her and Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street.

The nominees for best actress in a drama are Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Emma Thompson for Saving Mr. Banks, Judi Dench for Philomena and Kate Winslet for Labour Day. And the category for best actress in a comedy or a musical included Amy Adams for American Hustle, Julie Delpy for Before Midnight, Greta Gerwig for Frances Ha, Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Enough Said and Meryl Streep for August: Osage County.

In the best supporting actor category, Fassbender and Cooper will compete with Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club, Daniel Bruhl for Rush and newcommer Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips. And in the best supporting actress category, Lawrence and Nyong’o will run against Julia Roberts for August: Osage County, June Squibb for Nebraska and Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine.

Perceptibly absent from the nominations were Lee Daniel’s The Butler and its famous star Oprah Winfrey. Also the heart-rending low budget drama Fruitvale Station, which had been recognised by other award competitions, was missing.

The Hollywood Foreign Press also honours TV, and this year they have for first time recognised internet TV shows such as Netflix’s House of Cards, which collected 3 nods for Best TV Drama, Best Actor and Actress  in a TV series drama for Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright respectively.

House of Cards will run against Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Masters of Sex and The Good Wife in the TV series: Drama.

The Golden Globes Awards will be announced on 12th January next year at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles and broadcast live on NBC.