Golden Globe Fallout: Milk and Dark Knight Snubbed, Benjamin Button and Kate Winslet Honored

The Golden Globes (see the 2008 nominations here) have traditionally been the Academy Awards' trendy younger sister that really wants to be liked: they always go for popular films and splash acting awards all over the place. Their current system allows for thirty (and often more) actors to be nominated, across six categories, but only one lone screenplay category. So you know where their priorities lie.

That said, the Globes did deviate from popular opinion this year in one notable way: a lack of love for The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and that's it -- no Picture nomination and no Director nomination for Christopher Nolan. Does this hurt its chances? It's hard to say, but I'm leaning toward no -- especially when the L.A. Film Critics just showered it with awards earlier this week.

The other big snub was Milk, which saw only Sean Penn nominated. (Leaving out Josh Brolin in favor of both Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder is criminal. Pick one of them, fine, but not both.) Again, this is a movie that's been receiving a lot of love from critics groups, so its unlikely that this will be very damaging.

On the other hand, it's very rare that spread among the Globes two Picture categories, two movies are left out that end up as Best Picture Oscar nominees. But on the other other hand, that could be because there's a disproportionate amount of dramas this year -- usually a movie nominated in the Comedy/Musical section gets an Oscar nominee, and it's usually the indie -- Juno, Little Miss Sunshine. This year, "the indie" is Slumdog Millionaire, a drama.

Among the winners, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, and Frost/Nixon all received five nominations apiece. But two films in need of late-game buzz -- Revolutionary Road and The Reader -- each scored four apiece, including one for each of Kate Winslet's performances. (She's going lead in Road and supporting in The Reader.)

It's very likely, considering the (unfortunately) traditional lack of strong female roles to pick from, that Winslet will be nominated for an Oscar in both categories -- and in fact, her chances in each one are looking pretty good. In Best Actress, she'd likely be up against Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Sally Hawkins -- none of them slouches, but Winslet is very competitive -- while in Supporting Actress, things are looking better, as she'd likely be up against Penelope Cruz, Viola Davis, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Taraji P. Henson. Barring a surprise surge for DeWitt, Winslet would probably be the frontrunner among that line-up.

Meanwhile, Frost/Nixon, which could have very easily become a tossed-off disappointment, has proven itself to be a major player this year. At this point, a Best Picture Oscar nomination seems very likely.

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