USA: "Babel, "Borat," DiCaprio and Eastwood all score big with multiple Golden Globe nominations

"Babel," a searing film about cultural gaps among people around the world, earned seven Golden Globe nominations on Thursday (December 14) to lead a surprising range of nominees for the widely watched movie honors. Included among "Babel's" nominations were ones for best drama, best director for Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, supporting actor for Brad Pitt and two best supporting actress nods for Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi. Director Martin Scorsese's thriller "The Departed," earned six nominations, making it the second most nominated movie. The two films were joined on the best drama list by British royalty drama "The Queen," adultery film "Little Children" and surprise choice "Bobby," which takes place on the day former Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Highly touted musical "Dreamgirls" drew five nominations, including a nod for best movie musical or comedy. Competing against it are box office hits "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" and another surprise, anti-smoking satire "Thank You for Smoking." The annual Golden Globe awards, given out by the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, often indicate which movies will compete for the Oscars, the film industry's top honors. This year's nominees included some surprise picks, including "Bobby," which failed to make many critics' top 10 lists, and has earned a mere $10.5 million (USD) at box offices. In another surprise, Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the politically incorrect Kazakhstan TV reporter in "Borat," earned a nod for best comedic actor. Equally surprising were some of the films that were passed over. War drama "Flags of our Fathers," which earned Clint Eastwood one of two best director nominations, did not land in the best drama category. His other film this year, "Letters from Iwo Jima" which tells of the same World War Two battle from a Japanese perspective, earned Eastwood a second best director nomination and a nod for top foreign language film. Like Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio scored nominations for two movies in the same category, best actor in a film drama, for thriller "Blood Diamond" and "The Departed." He is joined by Peter O'Toole for "Venus," Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness" and Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland." Best dramatic actress nominees included Penelope Cruz for Spanish film "Volver," Maggie Gyllenhaal for "Sherrybaby," and Britain's Kate Winslet in "Little Children," Helen Mirren for "The Queen" and Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal." Controversial director Mel Gibson's ancient Mayan film "Apocalypto" was nominated for best foreign language movie. The other four films in the foreign language group are Eastwood's "Iwo Jima," Mexican fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth," Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" and Germany's "The Lives of Others." Actress nominees for a musical or comedy were singer Beyonce Knowles in "Dreamgirls," Toni Collette in "Little Miss Sunshine," Renee Zellweger in "Miss Potter," Meryl Streep for "The Devil Wears Prada" and Annette Bening in "Running with Scissors." Vying for best actor in a musical of comedy were Johnny Depp from "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Aaron Eckhart of "Thank You For Smoking," Chiwetel Ejiofor in "Kinky Boots" and Will Ferrell from "Stranger Than Fiction." Eastwood and Inarritu were joined by Martin Scorsese ("The Departed") and Stephen Frears ("The Queen") in the best director category. Golden Globe winners will be named on Jan. 15. The Oscars are given out on Feb. 25.

ITN Source | December 21, 2006

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