LOS ANGELES, December 15 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - "Babel," a searing film drama about cultural gaps among people around the world, earned seven Golden Globe nominations on Thursday to lead a surprising range of nominees for the widely watched movie honors.
"Babel" drew nominations for best drama, best director for Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, supporting actor for Brad Pitt and two best supporting actress nods for Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi, among its nominees.
Director Martin Scorsese's crime thriller "The Departed," earned six nominations and was the second most nominated movie. Those two films were joined on the best drama list by British royals movie "The Queen," adultery film "Little Children" and surprise choice "Bobby," which looks at the day former U.S. presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated.
Highly touted musical "Dreamgirls" scored five nominations. It drew a nod for best movie musical or comedy alongside road movie "Little Miss Sunshine," box office hits "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" and another surprise, anti-smoking satire "Thank You for Smoking."
"Babel" producer Steve Golin called his movie "a good fit" for the roughly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gives out the Golden Globes.
"The film has a lot of different themes, certainly about communication and families and the world we live in. It's an emotional film," Golin said.
The annual Golden Globe awards often indicate which movies will compete for the Academy Awards, the film industry's top honors.
Tom O'Neil, columnist for Oscar Web site TheEnvelope.com, called the best drama nomination of "Bobby" a "jawdropper," and said the film "is back in the Oscar race."
That movie, which is backed by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein's The Weinstein Co., had received only mixed reviews and was considered out of the Oscar race by many pundits.
Likewise, "Thank You For Smoking" also lacked recognition in many recent critics' awards, and although "Borat" has been a box office hit, its nomination was also a surprise.
The movie also earned a best comic actor nomination for its star Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays the politically incorrect Kazakhstan TV reporter, Borat, in the movie.
"It was the furthest thing from my mind," Borat director Larry Charles said of the nomination. Charles added that he believed Cohen was "a comic visionary."
ACTORS, ACTRESSES
Along with Cohen, Johnny Depp was nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy for smash hit, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." Joining those two actors were Aaron Eckhart in "Thank You For Smoking," Chiwetel Ejiofor in "Kinky Boots" and Will Ferrell for "Stranger Than Fiction."
Nominees for best actor in a film drama were topped by Leonardo DiCaprio for two movies, "Blood Diamond" and "The Departed." He is joined by Peter O'Toole for "Venus," Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness" and Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland."
The nominees for best actress in a drama were Penelope Cruz for Spanish film "Volver," Maggie Gyllenhaal for "Sherrybaby," and Britain's Kate Winslet in "Little Children," Helen Mirren for "The Queen" and Judi Dench in "Notes on a Scandal."
Lead actress nominees in a musical or comedy included singer Beyonce Knowles in "Dreamgirls," Toni Collette in "Little Miss Sunshine," Renee Zellweger in "Miss Potter" and veterans Meryl Streep for "The Devil Wears Prada" and Annette Bening for "Running with Scissors."
Two U.S. films were nominated in the best foreign language film category led by controversial director Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," which is told in an ancient Mayan language, and Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima," which is presented in Japanese.
The other three films in the foreign language group are Mexican fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth," director Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" and Germany's "The Lives of Others."
Golden Globe winners will be named in a ceremony in Beverly Hills on January 15. The Oscars are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and those winners will be named on February 25.
bdnews24.com/mdk/1925 hrs
