If you so much as turn on the television or stick your head outside these days, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year. But they are not. In fact, awards season is the most wonderful time of the year, at least for us pop-culture obsessives — we get to spend the next two months watching movies, arguing about movies, looking at red carpets, analyzing awards nominees, pontificating about The State of the Industry, and writing out countless nominee lists, like the one below, which contains the (bajillion) major nominees for the 2012 Golden Globes. While the Oscars are traditionally considered the most important of all the major awards ceremonies and shows, the Globes are pretty much the least important — the Hollywood Foreign Press? Pshh — second only to the People’s Choice Awards. However, they are by far and away the most entertaining for us to watch: pretty much every celebrity from television and film will be packed into a single auditorium, wearing fancy clothes and drinking, on camera, for at least two hours. For those of us at home in our comfy pants, that’s entertainment.
And your many, many nominees are….
FILM
BEST PICTURE, DRAMA
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse
BEST PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn
BEST DIRECTOR
Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
BEST ACTOR, DRAMA
George Clooney, The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy Stupid Love
Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris
BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet, Carnage
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain , The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
BEST SCREENPLAY
Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen
The Ides of March, George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants, Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash
Moneyball, Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Flowers of War
In The Land of Blood and Honey
The Kid WIth The Bike
A Separation
The Skin I Live In
Cecil B. DeMille Award: Morgan Freeman
TELEVISION
BEST TV SERIES, DRAMA
American Horror Story, FX
Boardwalk Empire, HBO
Boss, Starz
Game of Thrones, HBO
Homeland, Showtime
BEST ACTOR, TV DRAMA
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Kelsey Grammar, Boss
Jeremy Irons, The Borgias
Damian Lewis, Homeland
BEST ACTRESS, TV DRAMA
Claire Danes, The Homeland
Mireille Enos, The Killing
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Madeleine Stowe, Revenge
Callie Thorne, Necessary Roughness
BEST TV SERIES, COMEDY
Enlightened, HBO
Episodes, Showtime
Glee, Fox
Modern Family, ABC
The New Girl, Fox
BEST ACTOR, TV COMEDY
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
David Duchovny, Californication
Johnny Galecki, Big Bang Theory
Thomas Jane, Hung
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
BEST ACTRESS, TV COMEDY
Laura Dern, Enlightened
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Laura Linney, The Big C
Amy Poehler, Parks & Recreation
BEST MINI-SERIES OR TV MOVIE
Cinema Verite, HBO
Downton Abbey, Masterpiece PBS
The Hour, BBC America
Mildred Pierce, HBO
Too Big To Fail, HBO
BEST ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR TV MOVIE
Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey, Masterpiece
Idris Elba, Luther
WIlliam Hurt, Too Big To Fail
Bill Nighy, Page Eight
Dominic West, The Hour
BEST ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR TV MOVIE
Romola Garai, The Hour
Diane Lane, Cinema Verite
Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey
Emily Watson, Appropriate Adult
Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR TV MOVIE
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Paul Giamatti, Too Big To Fail
Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce
Tim Robbins, Cinema Verite
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR TV MOVIE
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story
Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Evan Rachel Wood, Mildred Pierce