Why the Golden Globes are ‘up in the air’

Ricky Gervais, host of next month's Golden Globes awards in Los Angeles, now has a better idea of who he might be sharing the stage with on January 17.

Front-runners among the award nominees announced today include George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Penelope Cruz and Avatar director James Cameron.

Clooney (pictured above in character) is up for best actor in Up in the Air, which has also won five other nominations, including best drama and best director for Jason Reitman, the young director who had a huge hit with Juno two years ago.

Up in the Air, which will open in Britain the same weekend as the Globes, had been considered a comedy until now. The fact that it has been treated as a drama by the Golden Globes will improve its chances at the Oscars, where comedies seldom score. Clooney plays a corporate downsizer who spends most of his life "up in the air", travelling from firing to firing.

Penelope Cruz is up for best actress in another film that has yet to open - the musical Nine featuring Daniel Day-Lewis opposite a glamorous line-up of female stars including Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Kate Hudson as well as Cruz. The film opens in the UK on Boxing Day.

Meryl Streep is nominated twice for best actress - for her role as the celebrated American chef Julia Child in Julie & Julia and as Alec Baldwin's ex in the romcom It's Complicated.

Avatar, which opens on both sides of the Atlantic this week with high hopes of it matching the success of Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic, has four nominations. They include best director, best drama and best theme song for Leona Lewis's I Will See You.

The British film An Education, based on Lynn Barber's memoir, could also feature in the awards ceremony: there's an acting nomination for Carey Mulligan, much praised for her lead role as the teenaged schoolgirl who falls for an older man.

But the focus of attention will be on the best drama shortlist after Slumdog Millionaire won it last time and went on to win the best film Oscar.

Along with Up in the Air and Avatar, the contenders are the Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and the Harlem drama Precious, produced by Oprah Winfrey and featuring Mo'Nique and Mariah Carey. ·