Golden Globe nominations set to be announced

The Golden Globes are a view of Hollywood from beyond the U.S. -- they’re given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., after all. This year, the group may be tempted to recognize three films from elite American directors who have brought evocative and uniquely European stories to the screen: Woody Allen with “Midnight in Paris,” Martin Scorsese with “Hugo” and Steven Spielberg with “War Horse” and “Tintin.”

Those are some of the films that may get key nominations on Thursday morning for the 69th annual Golden Globes, but none of them has the surging Cinderella story that belongs to the black-and-white and (almost entirely) wordless film “The Artist.” That movie is also a transatlantic work, but in the opposite direction: It’s a tale of Old Hollywood made by French director Michel Hazanavicius with the French actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. Both Dujardin and Bejo picked up Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations this week and joined fellow cast members John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller and James Cromwell in sharing a prestigious SAG nomination for cast in a motion picture. That may suggest that the film is shifting from critics’ darling to major trophy contender.

Carrying the American-European relations even further, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close, who may qualify as American acting royalty at this point in their careers, are considered near-locks for their work portraying two very different European women; Streep plays the Downing Street icon Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” while Close is the gender-bending title character in “Albert Nobbs,” a passion project that took her years to get to the screen. Close may also hear her name in the television categories -- on Wednesday she was nominated for a female actor SAG Award for her legal TV drama “Damages” in addition to her nod for “Albert Nobbs.”

Television shows as diverse as “Modern Family,” “Breaking Bad,” “Homeland,” “30 Rock” and “Game of Thrones” will be in the mix for Golden Globe attention, as well.

The Globes voters love big stars -- they gave Johnny Depp a nomination for “The Tourist,” after all, even though the film was widely panned -- and this year they will have plenty to choose from in strong roles: Brad Pitt starred in both “Moneyball” and Terrence Malick’s lyrical “The Tree of Life,” Leonardo DiCaprio worked with director Clint Eastwood for the first time to portray the most famous G-Man of them all in “J. Edgar,” and George Clooney is gaining attention for his star turn in “The Descendants,” the Alexander Payne film about a family imploding in the paradise of Hawaii.

This awards season is still wide open and a number of movies could begin their run toward Oscars with a voter-unifying success at the Globes. “The Help,” which delves into race relations in Mississippi in the 1960s, may be one of those films, and other possible players could be Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” which presents a magical wandering through the Paris of the Jazz Age, or “Hugo,” “War Horse” or “Tintin,” which take bestsellers from the bookshelves of young readers and turn them into visual epics. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” a Cold War tale of intrigue with a cast of elite British actors, and “Moneyballl,” which earned Pitt glowing reviews for playing a maverick baseball manager, could also find a foothold.

The Golden Globe awards will be handed out Jan. 15 at the Beverly Hilton and the gala will be broadcast on NBC. Ricky Gervais, who as host last January shook up Hollywood with some scorching insults, will again emcee the broadcast.