TONIGHT: Getting Ready For The Golden Globes

Are you ready for award season?

Tonight is the Golden Globes with the ceremony set for 5 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton, 9876 Wilshire Blvd.  

Director Steven Spielberg's epic Lincoln will try to become the awards-season front-runner when it takes a leading seven nominations into the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards, including best dramatic film, best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and supporting nods for Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.

However, the film, which is also the top Oscar nominee and among the tops for Screen Actors Guild Awards, could face a challenge from the upstart political thriller Argo, which scored top honors at Thursday's Critics Choice Awards.

Lincoln is nominated for the Golden Globe best motion picture drama along with Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi and Zero Dark Thirty.

The western Django Unchained and Argo each have five nominations, including best-director nods for Quentin Tarantino and Ben Affleck, respectively.

Argo won the prize for best picture at Thursday's Critics Choice Awards, and Affleck -- who was snubbed for an Oscar nomination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -- bested Spielberg to claim the critics' best-director award.

Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook are nominated for the Globe for best motion picture musical or comedy, as are The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

Nominated along with Day-Lewis for best actor in a film drama are Richard Gere of Arbitrage, John Hawkes for The Sessions, Joaquin Phoenix for The Master and Denzel Washington for Flight.

Nominees for best actress in a drama are Jessica Chastain of Zero Dark Thirty, Marion Cotillard of Rust and Bone, Helen Mirren for Hitchcock, Naomi Watts of The Impossible and Rachel Weisz for The Deep Blue Sea.

For motion picture comedy/musicals, nominees for best actor are Jack Black for Bernie, Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook, Hugh Jackman for Les Miserables, Ewan McGregor for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Bill Murray for Hyde Park on Hudson.

Best actress nominees for film comedy/musicals are to Emily Blunt of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Judi Dench for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Jennifer Lawrence of Silver Linings Playbook, Maggie Smith for Quartet and Meryl Streep for Hope Springs.

Nominated along with Tarantino, Spielberg and Affleck for best director are Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty and Ang Lee for Life of Pi.

Supporting actress nominees are Amy Adams for The Master, Sally Field for Lincoln, Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables, Helen Hunt for The Sessions and Nicole Kidman for The Paperboy.

Nominated for supporting actor are Alan Arkin for Argo, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained, Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Mastera nd Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln.

Since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association adopted the split drama/comedy-musical format for the Golden Globes in 1963, 65.3 percent of the films that ended up with best picture Academy Awards had first received a Golden Globe.

The Golden Globe drama winner has gone on to win best picture 25 of 49 times -- 52.1 percent -- with the musical or comedy winner has won seven times at the Oscars, including each of the first three years and last year when The Artist won both awards.

The credibility of the Golden Globes at times has been questioned by some directors and producers because the association has a relatively small membership, around 90.

Despite those statistics and questions, the Globes -- held in a dinner- party setting in a Beverly Hilton ballroom -- are still considered the first major event of the movie awards season and are touted as showing celebrities in a party-type atmosphere as opposed to the more formal Academy Awards.

The Golden Globes ceremony will be hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who are both nominated for best television comedy actress for their roles in "30 Rock" and "Parks and Recreation," respectively.

Also nominated in the category are Zooey Deschanel for "New Girl," Julia Louis-Dreyfus for "Veep" and Lena Dunham for "Girls."

Nominees for best comedy series are "The Big Bang Theory," "Episodes," "Girls," "Modern Family" and "Smash."

Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" is nominated for best actor in a comedy, along with Don Cheadle of "House of Lies," Louis C.K. for "Louie," Matt LeBlanc of "Episodes" and Jim Parsons of "The Big Bang Theory."

For television dramas, the nominees are "Breaking Bad," "Boardwalk Empire," "Downton Abbey," "Homeland" and "The Newsroom."

Steve Buscemi of "Boardwalk Empire" is nominated for best actor in a television drama, along with Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad," Jeff Daniels for "The Newsroom," Jon Hamm for "Mad Men" and Damian Lewis of "Homeland."

Lewis' co-star, Claire Danes, is nominated for best actress in a drama, along with Connie Britton of "Nashville," Glenn Close of "Damages," Michelle Dockery for "Downton Abbey" and Julianna Margulies of "The Good Wife."

--City News Service