BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Hollywood's awards season kicks off before clear front-runners have emerged, though Golden Globe voters have no shortage of fine films and performances to choose from when nominations are announced Thursday morning.
Among big contenders were the crime saga "No Country for Old Men" and the historical drama "There Will Be Blood." Both have been anointed by major critics groups.
The Golden Globes, the second-biggest film honors after the Academy Awards, has a category for best comedy or musical along with best drama, so Johnny Depp's bloody musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" could get an Oscar boost Thursday.
Days before the Globe nominations, Joel and Ethan Coen's "No Country for Old Men" was picked by the New York Film Critics Circle as the year's best film, while Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" earned the same honor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Both groups picked "There Will Be Blood" star Daniel Day-Lewis as best actor, while the New York critics gave their supporting-actor prize to Javier Bardem for "No Country for Old Men."
Other possible nominees for best drama at the Globes included Ridley Scott's crime tale "American Gangster"; Joe Wright's literary adaptation "Atonement"; Mike Nichols' foreign-policy romp "Charlie Wilson's War"; Sean Penn's road drama "Into the Wild"; and Julian Schnabel's French drama "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."
Along with Day-Lewis, Depp and Bardem, likely acting nominees included Brad Pitt for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Julie Christie for "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard for "La Vie En Rose"; Keira Knightley and James McAvoy for "Atonement"; and Ellen Page for "Juno."
Complicating this latest season of Hollywood backslapping is a strike by the Writers Guild of America, whose members walked off the job in November over their share of potential profits from programming distributed over the Internet.
Many awards shows are written under guild contract, so it remains unclear how the strike might affect the ceremonies.
Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a relatively small group of about 85 people who cover show business for overseas media, the Golden Globes nevertheless exert considerable influence on awards season.
Globe voters often call attention to smaller films and performances that might have gone overlooked come Oscar time.
In 1999, Annette Bening looked like the favorite to win the best-actress Oscar for "American Beauty" until Hilary Swank emerged as the winner for best dramatic actress at the Globes for "Boys Don't Cry." Swank went on to win the Oscar over Bening on Oscar night.
Three of the four acting winners for the 2006 Oscars -- Helen Mirren for "The Queen," Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland" and Jennifer Hudson for "Dreamgirls" -- won at the Globes beforehand. The only miss was Eddie Murphy, who won the supporting-actor Globe for "Dreamgirls" but lost at the Oscars to Alan Arkin for "Little Miss Sunshine."
Director Martin Scorsese also preceded his best-director Oscar win for "The Departed" with the same prize at the Globes.
While either the best drama or musical-comedy winner at the Globes often goes on to win the best-picture Oscar, the two awards shows have picked different films for their top honors in the last three years.
"Babel" was the dramatic winner and "Dreamgirls" was the musical or comedy champ a year ago at the Globes, but come Oscar night, Scorsese's "The Departed" triumphed.
Golden Globe winners will be announced Jan. 13, nine days before Oscar nominations. The Oscars will be presented Feb. 24.
The Globes feature 14 categories for film and 11 for television. Steven Spielberg will receive the Globes' Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.
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