Elizabeth Banks, Terrence Howard and Rainn Wilson this morning joined Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Jorge Camara in announcing the nominees for the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Nominations were announced in 25 categories, including Best Animated Feature. The winners will be announced on Sunday, Jan. 11 at The Beverly Hilton in Hollywood. NBC will carry the live telecast starting at 8 p.m. (ET).
The Hollywood Foreign Press decided to go with toons from the big three U.S. studios this year. Nominees for Best Animated Feature Film are Disney’s Bolt, DreamWorks Animation’s Kung-Fu Panda and Disney/Pixar’s WALL’E. Bolt and WALL’E both have tunes up for Best Original Song. ‘Down to Earth’ from WALL’E features music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, with lyrics by Peter Gabriel, and “I Thought I Lost You” from Bolt has music and lyrics by Miley Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele.
The animated documentary Waltz with Bashir from Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman is up for Best Foreign Language Film. The pic, which will be distributed stateside by Sony Pictures Classics, is up against The Baader Meinhof Complex from Germany, Everlasting Moments from Sweden/Denmark, Gomorrah from Italy and I’ve Loved You So Long (Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T’aime) from France.
Sadly, no animated pics made their way into the running for Best Picture. That category is a runoff between Warner Bros./Paramount Pictures’ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Universal’s Frost/Nixon (Imagine Ent., Working Title, Studio Canal), The Weinstein Co.’s The Reader (Mirage Enterprises), DreamWorks’ Revolutionary Road (Evamere Ent., BBC Films, Neal Street) and Fox Searchlight Pictures/Warner Bros.’ Slumdog Millionaire.
Leading the list of nominees with five nods each are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Miramax Film’s Doubt. The late Heath Ledger is up for Best Supporting Actor for Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight. After taking on Batman, the thespian is now up against Iron Man. Among the other nominees in the category is Robert Downey Jr. for the DreamWorks comedy Tropic Thunder.
The Golden Globe Awards is produced by Dick Clark Prods. in association with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The telecast will be seen in more than 150 countries worldwide. See the full list of nominees at www.goldenglobes.org/news/id/104.
