two of Scotland's top actresses, Tilda Swinton and Kelly Macdonald, are in the running for Golden Globe awards in the US.
Nominations for the accolades, which are often seen as a predictor of success at the Academy Awards, were unveiled yesterday, with Swinton honoured for her lead role in We Need to Talk About Kevin and Macdonald for her part in the prohibition-era TV drama, Boardwalk Empire.
The silent movie The Artist led the nominations, being put forward in six of more than 20 categories, including for best film, comedy or musical.
Following The Artist among top nominees for the Hollywood awards is The Descendants, starring George Clooney as a man struggling to keep his family together, and civil rights movie The Help. They are both nominated in five categories, including the key award for best film drama.
Other films vying for top drama were Hugo, Moneyball, War Horse and The Ides of March.
The Golden Globe Awards, which are given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are closely watched in the run-up to the Oscars in February.
The nominations in 25 film and television categories were announced by Sofia Vergara, Woody Harrelson and Scottish actor Gerard Butler (inset).
Steven Spielberg's War Horse is based on a play inspired by children's author Michael Morpurgo's novel, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston and David Thewlis. It follows on from the success of the play which debuted at the National Theatre on London's South Bank in 2007 before sell-out West End and Broadway runs.
Elsewhere in the awards, UK actors Jeremy Irons and Damian Lewis picked up nominations for best actor in a television drama for their roles in The Borgias and Homeland respectively.
BBC sitcom Episodes was nominated for best musical or comedy series and its star, Matt LeBlanc, got a nomination for best actor in a musical or comedy.
Downton Abbey is one of five contenders, including BBC drama The Hour, for best mini-series or movie. Stars Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith are nominated for separate awards.
McGovern is up against The Hour's Romola Garai, Kate Winslet and Emily Watson for the best actress in a mini-series or movie award.
Bonneville faces competition from names including Luther star Idris Elba, Dominic West and Bill Nighy for the best actor in a mini-series or movie award.
The Golden Globe Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony on January 15, hosted by comedian Ricky Gervais.
Last year, Gervais ruffled many of the actors in the audience with some sarcastic jokes about the reputation of the awards show, but was still invited back this year.
Aida Takla-O'Reilly, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, made light of last year's performance at the nominations, calling Gervais a "naughty, naughty schoolboy".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article