LOS ANGELES, Jan 13, (Agencies): Hollywood’s first big show on the road to the Academy Awards will help determine if silence is golden this season.
The black-and-white silent film “The Artist” leads contenders for Sunday’s Golden Globes with six nominations, among them best musical or comedy, directing and writing honors for Michel Havanavicius and acting slots for Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.
Though still playing in narrow release, the film has found enthusiastic audiences and has been a critical darling since premiering at last May’s Cannes Film Festival, positioning it as the first silent movie with serious awards prospects since the first years of the Oscars in the late 1920s.
In an age of elaborate computer effects and digital 3-D projection, “The Artist” is such a throwback to early cinema that it comes off as something entirely fresh.
Tied for second-place at the Globes with five nominations each are George Clooney’s family tale “The Descendants” and the literary adaptation “The Help,” both competing for best drama.

Political
Also in the running for best drama: Martin Scorsese’s family adventure “Hugo”; Clooney’s political thriller “The Ides of March”; Brad Pitt’s sports tale “Moneyball”; and Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic “War Horse.”
For best musical or comedy, “The Artist” is up against: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s cancer story “50/50”; Kristen Wiig’s wedding romp “Bridesmaids”; Woody Allen’s romantic fantasy “Midnight in Paris”; and Michelle Williams’ Marilyn Monroe tale “My Week with Marilyn.”
Along with honors from trade groups such as the directors, actors and writers guilds, the Globes help sort out key contenders for the Oscars, whose nominations balloting closes Friday, with nominees announced Jan 24.

A win Sunday can firm up a film’s prospects to triumph at the Oscars, though the Globes have had a bad track record predicting eventual best-picture winners in recent years.
Over the last seven years, only one Globe best-picture winner – 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire” – has gone on to claim the top honor at the Oscars. Before that stretch, the Globes had been on an eight-year streak in which only one of its two best-picture recipients went on to become the Oscar champ.
Last year, “The Social Network” won best-drama at the Globes and looked like the early Oscar favorite. But momentum later swung to eventual Oscar best-picture winner “The King’s Speech.”
The Globes generally do a better job predicting who might take home the acting Oscars.
A year ago, all four actors who won Oscars earned Globes first – lead players Colin Firth for “The King’s Speech” and Natalie Portman for “Black Swan” and “The Fighter” supporting stars Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.

Nominated
Along with Clooney, Pitt and Williams, other established stars nominated for Globes include Meryl Streep in the Margaret Thatcher tale “The Iron Lady,” Leonardo DiCaprio in the J. Edgar Hoover saga “J. Edgar,” Glenn Close in the Irish drama “Albert Nobbs” and Kate Winslet in the stage adaptation “Carnage.”
The lineup also features many newcomers to the awards scene, among them Wiig for “Bridesmaids,” Gordon-Levitt for “50/50,” Michael Fassbender for the sex-addict drama “Shame,” Rooney Mara for the thriller “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and Brendan Gleeson for the Irish crime tale “The Guard.”
“The Help” picked up three acting nominations: Viola Davis for dramatic actress and Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain for supporting actress. Adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s best-seller about black maids speaking out about their white employers during the civil rights movement, the hit drama has been a career-maker for many of its collaborators, including first-time director Tate Taylor, a childhood friend of Stockett, and producer Brunson Green.

“It’s a testament to pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and not taking no for an answer,” said Spencer, a longtime friend of Tate who had been toiling in small parts before “The Help.” “Kathryn was an underdog, and Tate and I and Brunson. ... They’d only done independent films and shorts, and now they’re in the big leagues.”
The Globes are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 85 entertainment reporters for overseas outlets.
What will Ricky Gervais say and about whom will he say it? Those are the two most pressing questions heading into Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, not what will win best film or TV show.
But in 2011, Globes host and Ricky Gervais ruffled the tuxedos and gowns of celebrities such as Robert Downey, Jr. and even Golden Globe organizers — roughly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — with jokes about their reputations.

Initially, the HFPA said he would not be invited back, but in a turnabout late last year, they and TV network NBC which airs the program issued an olive branch and invited the British funnyman to return. Now, the question is, what will he say this time.
“People say, is there anything you shouldn’t joke about? I don’t think there is. I just think it depends what the joke is,” Gervais told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in a segment to be aired on her program on Thursday.
“Comedy comes from either a good or a bad place and I was just teasing them, ya know,” he added. “It wasn’t a room full of wounded soldiers. These are the richest, most privileged people in the world.”

Here is a list of nominees in all movie categories for the 2012 Golden Globe awards.
* best film, drama: “The Descendants,” “The Help,” “Hugo,” “The Ides of March,” “Moneyball,” “War Horse.”

* best film, comedy or musical: “50/50,” “The Artist,” “Bridesmaids,” “Carnage,” “Midnight in Paris,” “My Week With Marilyn.”

* best actor, drama: George Clooney in “The Descendants,” Brad Pitt in “Moneyball,” Ryan Gosling in “The Ides of March,” Michael Fassbender in “Shame,” Leonardo DiCaprio in “J. Edgar.”

* best actress, drama: Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs,” Viola Davis in “The Help,” Rooney Mara in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady,” Tilda Swinton in “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”

* best director: Woody Allen for “Midnight in Paris,” George Clooney for “The Ides of March,” Michael Hazavicius for “The Artist,” Alexander Payne for “The Descendants,” Martin Scorsese for “Hugo.”

* best actor, comedy or musical: Jean Dujardin in “The Artist,” Brendan Gleeson in “The Guard,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “50/50,” Ryan Gosling in “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” Owen Wilson in “Midnight in Paris.”

* best actress, comedy or musical: Jodie Foster in “Carnage,” Charlize Theron in “Young Adult,” Kristen Wiig in “Bridesmaids,” Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn,” Kate Winslet in “Carnage.”

* best supporting actress: Berenice Bejo in “The Artist,” Jessica Chastain in “The Help,” Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs,” Octavia Spencer in “The Help,” Shailene Woodley in “The Descendants.”

* best supporting actor: Kenneth Branagh in “My Week With Marilyn,” Albert Brooks in “Drive,” Jonah Hill in “Moneyball,” Viggo Mortensen in “A Dangerous Method,” Christopher Plummer in “Beginners.”

* best animated feature: “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Arthur Christmas,” “Cars 2,” “Puss ‘n Boots,” “Rango.”

* best screenplay: “The Artist,” “The Descendants,” “The Ides of March,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Moneyball.”

* best foreign language film: “The Flowers of War” (China), “In the Land of Blood and Honey” (United States/Serbo-Croatian), “The Kid with Bike” (Belgium), “A Separation” (Iran), “The Skin I Live In” (Spain).

* best original score: “The Artist,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Hugo,” “W.E.,” “War Horse.”

* best original song: “Hello Hello” from “Gnomeo and Juliet” by Elton John, “The Keeper” from “Machine Gun Preacher” by Chris Cornell, “Lay Your Head Down” from “Albert Nobbs” by Brian Byrne and Glenn Close, “The Living Proof” from “The Help” by Mary J. Blige, “Masterpiece” from “W.E.” by Madonna.

Most numbers of nominations — all films with more than one nod:

“The Artist” – 6
“The Descendants” – 5
“The Help” – 5
“The Ides Of March” – 4
“Midnight In Paris” – 4
“Moneyball” - 4
“Albert Nobbs” – 3
“Hugo” – 3
“My Week With Marilyn” - 3
“50/50” – 2
“Bridesmaids” – 2
“Carnage” – 2
“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” – 2
“W.E.” – 2
“War Horse” – 2