Golden Globe nominees announced

THOUGH the Golden Globes spread its nominations around, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association swooned hardest for Todd Haynes' 1950s romance "Carol," which landed a leading five nominations including Best Picture, Drama.

In a widespread field of nominations announced yesterday in Beverly Hills, "Carol" solidified its growing Oscar hopes with nods for its two stars, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and for Haynes' direction. Also surging was Adam McKay's finance farce "The Big Short," which earned four nominations, including Best Picture, Comedy, and nods for Steve Carell and Christian Bale.

Also with four nods is Alejandro Inarritu's follow-up to his Oscar-winning "Birdman," the frontier epic "The Revenant," which was nominated for Best Picture, Drama, and Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio. A four-time Oscar nominee (and one-time Globe winner), DiCaprio is gunning for his first Academy Award.

Tied with four is the Aaron Sorkin-scripted "Steve Jobs," though it failed to join the Best Picture nominees. Along with "Carol" and "The Revenant," they are: "Mad Max: Fury Road," "Room" and "Spotlight."

Streaming series from Netflix (which led television with nine nods), Amazon and Hulu dominated the TV side of the Globes, which jumped all over the dial. Six shows tied for the most nominations: "Fargo," "Mr. Robot," "Outlander," "Transparent," "American Crime" and "Wolf Hall."

In an awards season that has so far failed to produce a definite heavyweight, Tom McCarthy's acclaimed Boston Globe drama "Spotlight" came into the Globe nominations as the Oscar favorite. While it took three top Globe nominations, including Best Director for McCarthy and Best Screenplay, its ensemble cast is failing to stand out from the pack.

After the Screen Actors Guild Awards passed over Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo on Wednesday, the Globes did, too. Ruffalo, however, was nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy for his performance as a bipolar father in "Infinitely Polar Bear."

Most of the expected contenders came away with something to show from the Globes, including the scientific space adventure "The Martian" (including nods for star Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott), David O. Russell's matriarch portrait "Joy" (best picture, comedy and best actress Jennifer Lawrence), George Miller's apocalyptic romp "Mad Max: Fury Road" (including best director for Miller) and "Room," the Emma Donoghue novel adaptation starring Brie Larson (nominated for best actress, drama) as a captive mother.

Left largely on the outside were Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller "Bridge of Spies," which was only nominated for Mark Rylance's supporting performance; the Irish immigrant drama "Brooklyn," just nominated for Saoirse Ronan's leading performance; and "Straight Outta Compton," the popular N.W.A. biopic, which landed nothing the day after the SAG Awards gave it a Best Ensemble nomination.

Ricky Gervais will return as host for the Globes on Jan. 10.