'Chicago' and Stephen Daldry take lead in race for Golden Globes

Stephen Daldry's film The Hours, inspired by Virginia Woolf, continued its blazing trail through the early Hollywood awards season yesterday, picking up seven nominations for the Golden Globe awards.

Nominations for the film, which stars Nicole Kidman as the novelist, include best motion picture drama, best director (Daldry), best screenwriter (David Hare) and two mentions for best actress in a drama.

The film was matched in the comedy/musical category by Chicago, a vivacious remake of the old Bob Fosse musical about murderous showbiz girls during the Al Capone era.

Chicago picked up eight nominations, including best musical or comedy, best director, best screenplay and a clutch of acting mentions for Catherine Zeta Jones, Renée Zellweger, John C Reilly and Queen Latifah.

Three other films also scored highly with Golden Globe voters: Adaptation, an eccentric film about writer's block by the makers of Being John Malkovich (six nominations); About Schmidt, Alexander Payne's study of an ordinary man entering retirement starring Jack Nicholson (five nominations); and Gangs of New York, Martin Scorsese's epic depiction of Irish gangs battling it out in 19th-century Manhattan (five nominations).

The nominations featured the usual smattering of high-profile British acting talent. Apart from Zeta Jones in Chicago, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis and Hugh Grant all received best actor mentions – for their roles in The Quiet American, Gangs of New York and About A Boy.

This year's list was notable for some absences – a relative lack of favour towards Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes' revisionist 1950s melodrama that won the New York critics' best film award earlier in the week, and no mention for the widely praised Mexican coming-of-age film by Alfonso Cuarón, Y Tu Mama Tambien.

The Golden Globes are a useful pointer to the Oscars and the films with most to gain from the Golden Globes list are likely to be Chicago, which could be the big crowd-pleaser the Academy favours, and The Hours, whose subject matter is not obvious Oscar material.

Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep star with Kidman in the film as two women who become fascinated with Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. In yesterday's list, both Kidman and Streep were nominated for best actress in a drama, with Ed Harris nominated for best supporting actor. Streep also earned a best supporting actress nomination for her role in Adaptation.