Golden Globe nominations: The Oscars won’t be so offbeat

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Tales from the cryptanalyst: Benedict Cumberbatch in 'The Imitation Game' (Black Bear Pictures)

The Golden Globe nominations suggest that the British will feature more prominently than ever in this year’s awards season.

Brits in British-made films and Brits in prestigious US dramas are in the running for Golden Globes.

As expected, Rosamund Pike has been nominated in the best actress (drama) category for her barnstorming performance in Gone Girl. So has Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything.

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), David Oyelowo (Selma) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) are up for best actor (drama) awards while Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel) has been nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy. That must be close to a record haul. The Brits are well represented in supporting actress categories, too, with Keira Knightley, Emily Blunt and Helen Mirren all in contention. It is heartening to see the feel-good British miners’-strike comedy Pride, which didn’t quite perform at the box office as expected, nominated as best picture (musical or comedy).

If Cumberbatch wins the Golden Globe, the momentum is likely to sweep him towards an Oscar. After all, The Imitation Game (like The King’s Speech) has already picked up the Toronto Festival Audience Award and he has the Weinstein Company, past masters at awards ballyhoo and boosterism, behind it. Cumberbatch has a very good chance of following Colin Firth and picking up not just the Golden Globe but every actor’s gong going. It will help him that one of his main rivals for the Oscar, Michael Keaton in Birdman, is in contention at the Globes in the musical or comedy category (splitting the best actor award into two results in some very strange fudges).

One Brit bound to be disappointed by the nominations is Christopher Nolan, whose sci-fi epic Interstellar has been almost entirely overlooked for awards (with only Hans Zimmer’s score being recognised).

In a strong year for drama, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, rapturously received by critics, is surely the front-runner for best motion picture (drama), a category in which the Brits will struggle to win.

The Globes tend to be more offbeat and adventurous than the Academy Awards… So don’t expect quite so many Brits on the Oscar shortlists next month.