64th Annual Golden Globe Nominees

The nominations for the Golden Globes for 2006 have been officially announced. The awards honor entertainment from the big screen to the small one, and this year is bursting with talent in every category.

There’s no shortage of high competition in the film categories. For Best Motion Picture – Drama, "Babel," "Bobby," "The Departed," "Little Children," and "The Queen" are all in the mix together. Within the Drama genre, the stars hoping to come out on top will be just as tough a choice for some. This year somehow Penelope Cruz is in the running right along side Judi Dench, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kate Winslet, and Helen Mirren for Best Actress in a Drama. But, a pleasant surprise is seeing Leonardo DiCaprio nominated twice for Best Actor, for both "Blood Diamond" and "The Departed." He is up against Peter O’ Toole, Will Smith, and Forest Whitaker. Under the Supporting Actor nods, we have Brad Pitt for "Babel," Ben Affleck for "Hollywoodland," and two nomination for "The Departed," Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlburg. In the Comedy movie category, "Borat," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Dreamgirls," "Little Miss Sunshine," and "Thank You for Smoking" are all up for Best Picture. Johnny Depp is up for Best Actor in this genre nom for "Pirates of the Carribean 2" along with Will Farrell for "Stranger Than Fiction." Last but certainly not least, Mel Gibson’s "Apocalypto" has already earned an accolade in that it is up for Best Foreign Language Film.

In the constant battle for television supremacy, we have old favorites and past winners coming to the top of the list again followed by some newcomers. It should come as no surprise that "24," "Grey’s Anatomy," and "Lost" are up for Best Drama Series, but "Big Love" and NBC’s "Heroes" also made the top cut. For Best Drama Actor, Kiefer Sutherland returns for "24" and "House" star Hugh Laurie is probably his biggest competition this year, and they are in good company with Bill Paxton from HBO’s "Big Love," Michael C. Hall of Showtime’s "Dexter" and "Grey’s Anatomy" McDreamy star Patrick Dempsey. For Best Actress, another returning winner Patricia Arquette for NBC’s "Medium" who is also in good company with Evangeline Lilly of "Lost," Kyra Sedgewick of "The Closer," Edie Falco from "The Sopranos," and lead actress on "Grey’s" Ellen Pompeo. Under Comedy, we have "Desperate Housewives," "Entourage," "The Office," "Ugly Betty," and "Weeds," so again mostly favorites with a new horse on the board. Best Actor is a very close race with Alec Baldwin, Zach Braff, Steve Carell, Jason Lee, and Tony Shalhoub in the running. Also, up for Best Mini-Series or Made-for-TV movie, AMC’s first original feature "Broken Trail" earned a nomination. The film’s stars Robert Duvall and Thomas Hayden Church also got nominations for Best Actor and Supporting Actor respectively under the same Made-for-TV classification.

As always, there are so many excellent choices. And, there’s the occasional baffling one of course. But, one thing is for sure, and it’s that choosing will not be easy for many of these categories, particularly with the heavy-hitting favorites coming to bat again from some of the best television we enjoy today. full list of nominees at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association