HFPA Goes Fishing…*Sunglasses*… Salmon Fishing

Ah, the Golden Globes. Everyone’s favorite star-whoring awards show. My favorite, anyway. We all know by now that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association simply loves to have as many celebrities as possible show up for its red carpet walk, even if that means tossing out nominations to “Burlesque” and “The Tourist.” That used to annoy me, but in a sea of redundant end-of-year awards shows, at least the Golden Globes have certainly marked out their own niche.

And as luck would have it, the strong myriad strong offerings on the table this year allowed the HFPA to indulge their star-struck tendencies with a bit more class than usual. Take for instance, the inclusion of Richard Gere and Rachel Weisz in their respective acting categories – they both turned in critically acclaimed performances in “Arbitrage” and “The Deep Blue Sea,” but the films themselves were generally too tiny for most people to see, hence their lack of support from SAG or the BFCA. Yet the pure star wattage of their names clearly got the HFPA to pay attention. That’s a welcome coincidence of sorts.

The Globes are also basically the first group of the season to trumpet “Django Unchained” in a big way, with Tarantino’s latest finding a spot in both Best Film – Drama and Best Director despite a crowded field, especially for the latter. They also remedied the curious lack of Leonardo DiCaprio up this point by nominating the star in Best Supporting Actor… AND Christoph Waltz for the same. That clearly shows the love for the film, considering that move bumped out Robert De Niro, although it does nothing to clear up the confusion for who ends with the Oscar nod. “The Master” also continues to hang on in this season by a thread, as the HFPA stood up for all three of the film’s major performances. We now have two very unexpected (and bizarre) dogfights going in the acting categories this season, with Joaquin Phoenix and Bradley Cooper scrapping for the fifth Best Actor slot and Amy Adams trying to fend off Nicole Kidman’s out-of-nowhere resurgence for “The Paperboy.”

The only glaring oddity (besides the continued lack of love for Emmanuelle Riva, who you would think would find some love from a FOREIGN PRESS group) was all the recognition for “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” a small summer romance that was met with a resounding “meh” by critics. Yet there it is, racking up three big nominations for Emily Blunt, Ewan Macgregor and the film itself in Best Comedy or Musical. I was expecting Judd Apatow’s “This is 40” to do well in those spots instead, but you’ve got to love the HFPA’s eccentricities.

For the first time in many years, the Oscar nominations are going to come out BEFORE the Globes themselves take place, so really the precursor frenzy is almost done already. The guild trio (PGA, DGA, WGA) is about all that’s left, and while those may solidify the Picture and Director races, we’re about as informed as we’re ever going to be about the acting categories. Will Kidman’s last-minute campaign snare her a Supporting Actress nomination? What about Amy Adams? Or Ann Dowd? What about DiCaprio and Waltz? Phoenix and Cooper? Not to mention the Best Actress race, where you could fill out a whole second slate with would-be nominees (Mirren, Weisz, Wallis, Riva, Watts). It’s a real crapshoot this year. But in any case, the Globes themselves should be a hoot – Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will co-host NBC’s telecast on January 15.

Best Picture – Drama

• Argo
• Django Unchained
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Zero Dark Thirty

Best Picture – Comedy or Musical

• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
• Les Misérables
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Best Director

• Ben Affleck, “Argo”
• Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”
• Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”
• Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”
• Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”

Best Actor – Drama

• Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
• Richard Gere, “Arbitrage”
• John Hawkes, “The Sessions”
• Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”
• Denzel Washington, “Flight”

Best Actor – Comedy or Musical

• Jack Black, “Bernie”
• Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
• Hugh Jackman, “Les Misérables”
• Ewan McGregor, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”
• Bill Murray, “Hyde Park on Hudson”

Best Actress – Drama

• Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
• Marion Cotillard, “Rust and Bone”
• Helen Mirren, “Hitchcock”
• Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”
• Rachel Weisz, “The Deep Blue Sea”

Best Actress – Comedy or Musical

• Emily Blunt, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”
• Judi Dench, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
• Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
• Maggie Smith, “Quartet”
• Meryl Streep, “Hope Springs”

Best Supporting Actor

• Alan Arkin, “Argo”
• Leonardo DiCaprio, “Django Unchained”
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”
• Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
• Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”

Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams, “The Master”
• Sally Field, “Lincoln”
• Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
• Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”
• Nicole Kidman, “The Paperboy”

Best Screenplay

• Mark Boal, “Zero Dark Thirty”
• Tony Kushner, “Lincoln”
• David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”
• Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”
• Chris Terrio, “Argo”

Best Animated Feature

• Brave
• Frankenweenie
• Hotel Transylvania
• Rise of the Guardians
• Wreck-It Ralph

Best Foreign Language Film

• Amour
• The Intouchables
• Kon-Tiki
• A Royal Affair
• Rust and Bone

Best Original Score

• Mychael Danna, “Life of Pi”
• Alexandre Desplat, “Argo”
• Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer, “Cloud Atlas”
• Dario Marianelli, “Anna Karenina”
• John Williams, “Lincoln”

Best Original Song

• “For You,” by Monty Powell and Keith Urban, “Act of Valor”
• “Not Running Anymore,” by Jon Bon Jovi, “Stand Up Guys”
• “Safe and Sound,” by Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams, T-Bone Burnett, “The Hunger Games”
• “Skyfall,” by Adele, Paul Epworth, “Skyfall”
• “Suddenly,” by Alain Boubil, Claude-Michel Schonberg, “Les Misérables”