FOREIGN PRESS ASSN. LISTS GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES

Adding to a growing collection of year-end awards, four of the heavy favorites in the Oscar race for best picture--”Out of Africa,” “Prizzi’s Honor,” “Witness” and “The Color Purple”--tallied the most votes in the annual Golden Globe nominations announced Thursday.

Nominees for Golden Globes, awarded yearly by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., were chosen by a poll of the group’s 80 members.

“Out of Africa,” based on writer Isak Dinesen’s chronicles of her years in Africa, received six nominations, including nods for Meryl Streep as best actress in a drama, Klaus Maria Brandauer as best supporting actor in a drama and Sydney Pollack as best director.

“Prizzi’s Honor,” a black comedy about a male-female crime syndicate hit team also won six nominations, among them Jack Nicholson as best actor in a drama, Kathleen Turner as best actress in a drama, Anjelica Huston as best supporting actress in a drama and her father, John Huston, as best director.

“Witness,” the story of an Amish child who witnesses a murder and the consequences on his rural religious community in Pennsylvania, also captured six nominations. They included Harrison Ford as best actor in a drama, Kelly McGillis as best supporting actress and Peter Weir as best director.

“The Color Purple,” a late-season release about a black woman’s struggle for freedom and self-esteem in the Deep South, based on Alice Walker’s book, landed five nominations.

Nominees for best motion picture drama are “The Color Purple,” “Out of Africa,” “Witness,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “Runaway Train.”

Nominees for best musical or comedy are “Prizzi’s Honor,” “Back to the Future,” “A Chorus Line,” “Cocoon” and “The Purple Rose of Cairo.”

Nominated for best performance by an actor in a movie drama are Harrison Ford (“Witness”), Gene Hackman (“Twice in a Lifetime”), William Hurt (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”) and Jon Voight (“Runaway Train”).

Nominees for best actress in a motion-picture drama are Anne Bancroft (“Agnes of God”), Cher (“Mask”), Whoopi Goldberg (“The Color Purple”) and Geraldine Page (“The Trip to Bountiful”).

Universal won a total of 12 nominations, four more than its closest contenders, Orion and Columbia, which each captured eight.

Barbara Stanwyck, whose acting career spans more than six decades on stage, movies and television, will be awarded the association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contribution to entertainment.