'Carol,' 'The Big Short,' 'The Revenant' lead Golden Globes
Though the Golden Globes spread its nominations around, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association swooned hardest for Todd Haynes' 1950s romance "Carol," which landed a leading five nominations including best film drama.
With four nods is Alejandro Inarritu's follow-up to his Oscar-winning "Birdman," the frontier epic "The Revenant," which was nominated for best picture, drama, and best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio.
In an awards season that has so far failed to produce a definite heavyweight, Tom McCarthy's acclaimed Boston Globe drama "Spotlight" came into the Globe nominations as the Oscar favorite.
Most of the expected contenders came away with something to show from the Globes, including the scientific space adventure The Martian (including nods for star Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott), David O. Russell's matriarch portrait Joy (best picture, comedy and best actress Jennifer Lawrence), George Miller's apocalyptic romp Mad Max:
Fury Road (including best director for Miller) and Room, the Emma Donoghue novel adaptation starring Brie Larson (nominated for best actress, drama) as a captive mother.
Left largely on the outside were Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller "Bridge of Spies," which was only nominated for Mark Rylance's supporting performance; the Irish immigrant drama "Brooklyn," just nominated for Saoirse Ronan's leading performance and whose name was mangled by nominee announcer Dennis Quaid; and "Straight Outta Compton," the popular N.W.A biopic, which landed nothing the day after the SAG Awards gave it a best ensemble nomination.
Will Smith, whose upcoming "Concussion" has drawn headlines for its depiction of head trauma in football, joined the best actor, drama, nominees.
Alicia Vikander, the ubiquitous star of 2015, joined the best dramatic actress field for Tom Hooper's transgender pioneer drama "The Danish Girl", as well as the supporting actress one for her performance as an artificial intelligence in the sci-fi indie "Ex Machina."
Though some questionable category decisions left less humorous films competing for best comedy or musical, two of comedy's top stars will crash a particularly somber awards season:
In the best animated film category, the Charlie Kaufman-scripted, stop-motion animated "Anomalisa" slotted in alongside a quartet of more family-friendly releases: "Inside Out," ''The Good Dinosaur," ''The Peanuts Movie" and "Shaun the Sheep Movie."
Vying for best drama are: ABC's "Empire," USA's "Mr. Robot," Netflix's "Narcos," Starz's "Outlander" and HBO's "Games of Thrones" (the only returning nominee).