The makers of Atonement are breathing a sigh of relief this morning, as the well-received adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, leads all films with seven Golden Globe nominations. The film, considered an Oscar front-runner, has been shut out thus far in the critics awards.

Also getting a boost is Charlie Wilson’s War, which picked up nominations for Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor and Screenplay. No Country for Old Men continued its strong showing, with Picture, Screenplay, Director and Supporting Actor nods, though Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin were left out.

Michael Clayton picked up acting nominations for George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton.

The oddest move is the expansion to seven nominees in the Best Picture/Drama category (voting must have been tight). The Great Debaters and Eastern Promises appear to be the “extra” films here, as they didn’t pick up many other nominations (none in the case of Debaters).

The biggest snubs (as I mentioned in my last post) were for this year’s highly successful and well-reviewed comedies: Knocked Up, Superbad and Walk Hard (though John C. Reilly did pick up an acting nomination).

Full list below:

Best Picture/DRAMA
American Gangster
Atonement
Eastern Promises
The Great Debaters
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Picture/COMEDY/MUSICAL
Across The Universe
Charlie Wilson’s War
Hairspray
Juno
Sweeney Todd

Best Actor/DRAMA
George Clooney – Michael Clayton
Daniel Lewis – There Will Be Blood
James McAvoy – Atonement
Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises
Denzel Washington – American Gangster

Best Actor/COMEDY/MUSICAL
Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd
Ryan Gosling – Lars & The Real Girl
Tom Hanks – Charlie Wilson’s War
Phillips Seymour Hoffman – The Savages
John C Reilly – Walk Hard

Best Actress/DRAMA
Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie – Away From Her
Jodie Foster – The Brave One
Angelina Jolie – A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley – Atonement

Best Actress/COMEDY/MUSICAL
Amy Adams – Enchanted
Nikki Blonsky – Hairspray
Helena Bonham Carter – Sweeney Todd
Marion Cotillard – La vie en rose
Ellen Page – Juno

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson’s War
John Travolta – Hairspray
Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There
Saoirse Ronan – Atonement
Julia Roberts – Charlie Wilson’s War
Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton

Best Director
TIm Burton – Sweeney Todd
Ethan & Joel Coen – No Country For Old Men
Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell & The Butterfly
Ridley Scott – American Gangster
Joe Wright – Atonement

Best Writer
Diablo Cody – Juno
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – No Country for Old Men
Christopher Hampton – Atonement
Ronald Harwood – The Diving Bell & The Butterfly
Aaron Sorkin – Charlie Wilson’s War

Animation
Bee Movie
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie

Original Score
Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Edder, Into the Wild
Clint Eastwood, Grace Is Gone
Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
Dario Marianelli, Atonement
Howard Shore, Eastern Promises

Foreign Language Film
4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (Romania)
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (France, United States)
The Kite Runner (United States)
Lust, Caution (Taiwan)
Persepolis (France)

Original Song
Despedida from Love in the Time of Cholera
Grace Is Gone from Grace Is Gone
Guaranteed from Into the Wild
That’s How You Know from Enchanted
Walk Hard from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

The Golden Globe nominations are in, and what stands out the most to me is how little respect this organization has for “real” comedies in its ‘Comedy/Musical’ category.

First of all, the idea of lumping comedies and musicals together is absurd — especially when films such as Walk the Line, La Vie en Rose and Ray are considered musicals. All three are pretty heavy dramas about people who sing… they are NOT musicals. What they are is an excuse for the Golden Globes to nominate even more dramas and ignore movies that actually make people laugh.

This year, the Globes went so far as to nominate SEVEN dramas, and then stocked the Comedy/Musical category with the likes of Across the Universe, Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson’s War (maybe Charlie Wilson really is primarily a comedy, but that wasn’t my impression). Yet they couldn’t find room for Knocked Up or Ratatouille, two films that are among the best reviewed of the year and also genuinely funny? Or even Superbad, which has its flaws but which tapped into something very sweet and real amidst the raunch. And no Walk Hard, also well-reviewed, which is both a musical (by the Globes’ standards) and a comedy? What a slap in the face for Judd in the ‘Year of Apatow!’

And I’ll let Amy express her outrage at the absence of Once from the Musical category, as well as all the rest.

The other bigwig critics group chimes in, and it’s another victory for No Country For Old Men, which also picks up prizes for the Coen Brothers’ direction and script as well as yet another win for Javier Bardem.

Amy Ryan continues her sweep of the Best Supporting Actress awards. A commenter on the last post asked if these critics awards really mean anything to the Oscar race, and the short answer is that they definitely do for somebody like Ryan, who before yesterday was only minimally on the radar but now should be considered not just a lock for a nomination but a pretty good bet to win. It was assumed that Cate Blanchett would take most of these awards for her portrayal of Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, and she’ll still be a strong contender, but Ryan is suddenly the one to beat.

There Will Be Blood gets a couple more mentions here, and the producers of that film must be happy with these early results. Also, Persepolis has really been duking it out with front-runner Ratatouille for the animated prize.

Best Picture
No Country for Old Men

Best Director
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Actor
Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Actress
Julie Christie, Away from Her

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone

Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Best Screenplay
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Cinematographer
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

Best Foreign Film
The Lives of Others

Best Animated Film
Persepolis

Best First Film
Sarah Polley, Away from Her

Best Documentary
No End in Sight

Lifetime Achievement
Sidney Lumet

Special Critics’ Award
Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep

The next big critics group chimes in and it’s another win for There Will Be Blood, which picked up directing and acting wins as well. Amy Ryan and Marion Cotillard show up again but Javier Bardem loses out for the first time — to an actor from 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, a Romanian film about abortion that picked up quite a few awards from the New York Critics.

Here we have the first mention of Once, for Best Music. Without some more attention in the early awards, that film is probably looking at a Best Song nomination (or two) and little else come Oscar time.

BEST PICTURE
There Will Be Blood
Runner Up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Runner-up: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Runner-up: Anamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Runner-up: Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening

SCREENPLAY
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Runner-up: There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Runner-up: Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Vlad Ivanov, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
Runner-up: Hal Holbrook, Into The Wild

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
Runner-up: The Diving Bell & The Butterfly

DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM
No End in Sight directed by Charles Ferguson
Runner-up: Sicko, Michael Moore

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Jack Fisk, There Will Be Blood
Runner-up: Dante Ferretti, Sweeney Todd

ANIMATION
tie – Ratatouille (Brad Bird) and
Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud/Marjane Satrapi)

MUSIC
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Once
Runner-up: Johnny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Janusz Kaminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Runner-up: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

NEW GENERATION
Sarah Polley – Away from Her

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Sidney Lumet