It still seems wrong that it’s not even the end of the year – with multiple major movies still to be released – but critics groups and awards ceremonies are already announcing their nominations and winners for the best films of the year. It’s largely due to the fact that a few years ago the Oscars decided to move closer to the start of the year, so all the other ceremonies and announcements also moved their dates up, many into early/mid-December.

Today one of the main bellweathers for the Oscar race was announced, the Golden Globe nominations. They were led by The Shape Of Water, which picked up seven nominations. It was a stronger showing than many expected, especially as it was competing in the Drama section (rather than the usually less competitive Musical or Comedy categories), and will help ensure that eyes are on it as we enter Oscar season.

Spielberg’s timely journalistic drama, The Post, was next with six nominations, the same number as Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – a film few had heard of until recently, but which is now shaping up to be a major Oscar contender. However, it just goes to show what an open race it is, as Call Me By Your Name, which has picked up several of the earliest Best Film awards, got just three nominations. It even missed out on a Best Director nomination of Luca Guadagnino, which many think it has a good shot of winning the Oscar for. However, all its noms were in major drama categories – Best Film, Best Actor for Timothee Chalamet and Best Supporting Actor for Armie Hammer.

Other than Call Me By Your Name and a couple of nominations for the loosely LGBT-themed Battle Of The Sexes (Best Actor and Best Actress for Steve Carrell and Emma Stone), there wasn’t much gay love in the film nominations, although Will & Grace picked up two nominations in the TV awards. There was also a love for female drama (of a rather camp-nature, it must be said) in the TV nominations, as they were led by six nomination for Big Little Lies and four for Feud: Bette and Joan. Both of those came out ahead of what many thought would be the leader – The Handmaid’s Tale, which only scored three nominations.

However, the biggest surprise for gay film fans was BPM missing out on a Best Foreign Language Film nomination. Many Critics Groups are expected to choose it as their best non-English Language movie (the The New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association have already done so), so the fact it’s not even on the noms list for the Globes is a big surprise.

Take a look at the full list of nominees below. [Read more…]