"The King's Speech" led the film nominations for Golden Globe awards on Tuesday with seven nods, including best film drama, among a group of films in the race for Hollywood's top honors, the Oscars. It is one of three films being screened at the Dubai International Film Festival 2010, which runs until December 19.
On Sunday, the film was the festival's opening gala, with lead actor Colin Firth in attendance. Firth has just been nominated for the Best Actor -- Motion Picture Drama award at the Globes, which are one of the key film honours ahead of the Oscars, the world's top movie awards.
In an interview with Emirates247.com, Firth, who plays a stuttering British king in "The King's Speech," would not be drawn on whether or not he expected an Oscar nomination -- or award -- in 2011, after having in lost the same category to Jeff Bridges this year.
On Tuesday, Firth received news of his Globe nomination while still in Dubai. Festival onlookers said he appeared delighted at the news.
Festival Chairman Abdulhamid Juma said: "All of us at the Dubai International Film Festival are thrilled by this news. On behalf of the entire Dubai community, we extend our heartiest congratulations to The King’s Speech team for their outstanding work and this richly deserved honour."
Another DIFF film has also picked up an acting nomination. Jennifer Lawrence, who stars in "Winter's Bone", has been nominated for Best Actress - Drama. Meanwhile, "Biutiful", which stars Javier Bardem and has been on standby-only at the festival, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Facebook and boxing
Close behind with six nominations each were boxing film "The Fighter" and Facebook movie "The Social Network," which also claimed spots among the best film drama nominees. Rounding out the list of five contenders in that important category were "Inception" and "The Black Swan," each with four nominations.
Nominees for best movie comedy or musical were "The Kids Are All Right," "Alice in Wonderland," "Burlesque," "The Tourist" and "Red."
Philip Berk, the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gives away the Globes, called Tuesday's nominees "a wonderful mix" of films.
Portman, Wahlberg
Notable absentees and poor performers on the list were widely touted "True Grit," and "Winter's Bone," which has been a critical darling among low-budget and independent films this past year. "True Grit" star Jeff Bridges had widely been expected to pull in a nod for best actor in a drama, yet he failed to make the list.
In fact, it was "Social Network" star Jesse Eisenberg, portraying the website's founder Mark Zuckerberg," who landed in the category against Firth.
They are joined by James Franco in "127 hours," Ryan Gosling for "Blue Valentine" and Mark Wahlberg in "The Fighter," which has wowed critics in early screenings.
Best film drama actress nominees were Halle Berry in "Frankie and Alice," Nicole Kidman for "Rabbit Hole," Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan and Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine."
Musical and comedy films also have nominees for acting, and in that arena Johnny Depp was nominated twice, for "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Tourist." He will compete against Paul Giamatti in "Barney's Version," Jake Gyllenhaal with "Love and Other Drugs," and Kevin Spacey with "Casino Jack."
Nominations for best actress in a musical or comedy were led by Annette Bening, whose performance as a lesbian mother in "The Kids Are All Right" has thrilled critics. She is joined by her co-star in "Kids," Julianne Moore, as well as Anne Hathaway for "Love and Other Drugs," Angelina Jolie in "The Tourist" and Emma Stone for "Easy A."
Joining the Mexican-Spanish effort "Biutiful" in the foreign-language category were France's "The Concert," Russia's "The Edge," "I Am Love" from Italy and Danish movie "In a Better World."
Unlike Oscar organizers, members of the Hollywood Foreign Press also give awards for TV, and leading the nominees in that arena was hit musical "Glee" with five nods overall.
"Glee" landed in the category for best TV comedy or musical, where it will be joined by five other shows including "30 Rock," "The Big Bang Theory," "The Big C," "Modern Family" and "Nurse Jackie."
Nominations for best TV drama went to "Boardwalk Empire," "Dexter," "The Good Wife," "Mad Men," and "The Walking Dead."
The Golden Globes will be given out on January 16, in a ceremony televised live on the NBC broadcast network.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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