Sideways leads Golden Globe nominees

Sideways, a critically acclaimed tale of two men looking for love in California's wine country, led Golden Globe nominations yesterday with seven, one more than closest rival, The Aviator, a biography of young Howard Hughes conquering Hollywood.

The nominations for the awards given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 16 are often an indicator of what films are jockeying for position for the US film industry's top awards, the Oscars, handed out in February.

Also receiving five nominations each were Closer, a story of tangled love affairs among two couples, Finding Neverland, a fictional film about Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, and Clint Eastwood's female boxing movie, Million Dollar Baby.

The film dramas are considered the top Golden Globe awards, and joining Aviator, Closer, Finding Neverland and Million Dollar Baby were Hotel Rwanda, which chronicles the plight of one man in the Rwandan genocide, and Kinsey, about the life of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey.

Sideways topped the nominees for best film musical or comedy. That group included romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, musical Ray, about the life of soul singer Ray Charles, The Phantom of the Opera, based on the play of the same name, and hit animated movie The Incredibles.

Two French films were among the five nominated for best foreign language film. They were The Chorus and A Very Long Engagement. Also nominated were Spain's The Sea Inside, Brazil's The Motorcycle Diaries and China's The House of Flying Daggers.

The Golden Globe awards help narrow the competitors for 2004's top films because in the past, many nominees have gone on to win Oscars. That fact is especially important in this year's race that has been considered wide open.

"Two months ago, we were thinking this had not been such a good year for movies," said Lorenzo Soria, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press, "but recently, we have been seeing lots of interesting and relevant films."

Don Cheadle in Rwanda and Liam Neeson in Kinsey earned nominations for best actor in a drama. They will compete with Leonardo DiCaprio, who portrays eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes in Aviator, Johnny Depp for Finding Neverland and Spain's Javier Bardem in The Sea Inside.

In a first, actor Jamie Foxx was nominated in three groups: best performance in a film musical for Ray, best supporting actor for crime thriller Collateral and best performance in a mini-series or made-for-TV movie for Redemption.

Among actors in a comedy or musical, Foxx will go head to head with Sideways star Paul Giamatti, comedian Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kevin Kline in Cole Porter musical De-Lovely and Kevin Spacey for the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea.

Best dramatic actress nominees were Nicole Kidman for Birth, Britain's Imelda Staunton in abortion drama Vera Drake, Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Volume 2 and Scarlett Johansson for A Love Song for Bobby Long.

Nominees for best actress in a movie musical or comedy were Annette Bening in Being Julia, Ashley Judd for De-Lovely, Emmy Rossum for The Phantom of the Opera, Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Renee Zellweger for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

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