Globes. Nominations.

Among the surprises to be found in the list of the Golden Globe nominations are frequent appearances of the titles In Bruges and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Still, Variety's added them all up and finds that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has come out on top, at least in the big-time categories.

Awards night is Sunday, January 11, and it will happen this year. Last year, you may remember, the writers' strike reduced the evening to a curt press conference (which many films fans discovered they actually preferred). This time around, it's the actors who may go on strike. Globes Night is safe; Oscar Night, not so much.

Updated through 12/13.

Related: S James Snyder runs through a brief history of the Globes for Time.

Updates: "What can one say? The town drunks are at it again." David Poland makes a series of predictions as to how all this will play out.

"Even though the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the widely ridiculed club that holds the awards, is neither really foreign nor press, I've always found that vaguely xenophobic," blogs Julian Sancton for VF Daily. "Then again, given the bizarreness of their nominations, announced this morning, the conventional wisdom holds."

"Universal, Miramax and Paramount/Warners are heaving huge sighs of relief that the Golden Globes rewarded Frost/Nixon, Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with five nominations apiece," blogs Anne Thompson. "The three films had been virtually overlooked by influential critics' groups in LA and NY this week.... [A]lthough the Globes saw fit to only recognize Sean Penn's performance in Gus Van Sant's very American and very political Milk (which won best film from the NYFCC), that should not hurt its overall awards chances. Nor would this group be particularly drawn to a fable beloved by both American moviegoers and critics, The Dark Knight. And Gran Torino's masterful, reflexive performance by actor/director Clint Eastwood is more likely to play to the Academy than the HFPA."

"How do we know this is the Golden Globes and not the Oscars?" asks the Boston Globe's Ty Burr. "Because Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr got supporting actor nominations for their scurrilously funny turns in Tropic Thunder, while James Franco is over in the Best Actor, Musical or Comedy category for his charmingly hapless stoner in Pineapple Express."

"Hollywood will focus as much on what was shut out, and there were several surprises." Brooks Barnes ticks off a few examples for the Carpetbagger. More from the Bagger himself, David Carr.

The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik lays out "a few subplots that jumped out at us (along with Terrence Howard's tie), from the podium at the Beverly Hilton this morning."

Jürgen Fauth and Marcy Dermansky are happy to see those nominations for In Bruges.

Update, 12/13: "Congratulations on your strong showing this morning. What were you doing when you found out?" Lane Brown gets in touch with Harvey Weinstein: "I was on the set of Nine in London, making a movie with Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, and Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Judi Dench. It was very fun to be clapped by your cast and Rob Marshall, the director, so the whole, you know, everybody broke into spontaneous applause when we got Best Comedy and Best Drama."

Richard Corliss for Time: "Members of the New York, LA and DC groups are actual movie critics... The resumés of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are a little more obscure."

Posted by dwhudson at December 11, 2008 6:04 AM