Golden Globes Up In The Air

Having turned his ironic touch to the tobacco industry in Thank You For Smoking and teenaged pregnancy in Juno, Jason Reitman has scored another critical hit with his latest film.
Up In The Air — about a frequent flier who travels around America to fire people, because he’s not ready to commit to anything or anyone back home – is leading the field in nominations for the Golden Globes – one of the most prestigious set of awards of the every-growing season.
The film has been nominated for the Best Dramatic Feature award, Reitman is up for best director and screenplay and there are acting nods to George Clooney, in the lead role, and both of his supporting actresses, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.
Clooney faces competition from Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus) and Tobey Maguire (Brothers).
The film itself is up against Precious, Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker and James Cameron’s pioneering CGI-heavy Avatar.
As is often the case, most of the directors of the Best Drama nominees are up for the directing prize too — so Reitman is joined by Cameron, Tarantino and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and veteran Clint Eastwood is also nominated for directing Invictus – his biopic of Nelson Mandela.
British women are well represented in the Best Dramatic Actress category, with Emily Blunt (Young Victoria), Dame Helen Mirren (The Last Station) and Carey Mulligan (An Education) facing competition from Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).
Sandra Bullock has a second nomination in the Best Musical or Comedy Actress category, for The Proposal. Meryl Streep has two nominations in the same category – for her roles in Julie & Julia and It’s Complicated. Julian Roberts and Marion Cotillard complete the field.
Among the actors, Matt Damon also has two nominations – one for the Best Musical or Comedy Actor in The Informant! and as a best supporting actor in Invictus.
Many of the nominated films haven’t been released in the UK, but there are plenty you might have seen, either on general release or in festivals. The Best Animated Feature category includes Up, which opened the Cannes Film Festival in May and Fantastic Mr Fox, the opening film of the London Film Festival in October. The Best Foreign Language Film nominees include The White Ribbon, which picked up the top prize in Cannes and A Prophet which won the inaugural Star of London at the LFF.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the Golden Globes, sets itself apart from most other awarding bodies by having separate honours for dramas and comedies/musicals. It also hands out prizes for television.
The full list of the film nominations is below.
BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up In The Air
BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA
Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
BEST ACTOR – DRAMA
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up In The Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Tobey Maguire – Brothers
BEST PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
(500) Days Of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
BEST ACTRESS – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Sandra Bullock – The Proposal
Marion Cotillard – Nine
Julia Roberts – Duplicity
Meryl Streep – It’s Complicated
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia
BEST ACTOR – 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 SUPPORTING ACTRESS
PenΓ©lope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick – Up In The Air
Mo’nique – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Julianne Moore – A Single Man
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess And The Frog
Up
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Baaria (Italy)
Broken Embraces (Spain)
The Maid (La Nana) (Chile)
A Prophet (Un Prophete) (France)
The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) (Germany)
BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Clint Eastwood – Invictus
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
BEST SCREENPLAY
District 9 – Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
It’s Complicated – Nancy Meyers
Up In The Air – Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

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