AwardsWatch

How do you follow up an international success like JUNO?Well....writer/director Jason Reitman, who has only three feature films to his credit, is sailing into Oscar town with his latest serious satire, UP IN THE AIR. The George Clooney-starrer has already been named Best Picture of the Year by several critics groups and has now posted the biggest nomination record for this year's Golden Globe Awards (will Oscar gold be far behind????).

UP IN THE AIR has scored six 2009 Golden Globe nominations, including nods for best picture, best director, best screenplay, and acting noms for George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. The film has already won the Best Picture prize from the National Board of Review, a film critics' organization and lead actor George Clooney is now considered the one to beat for a Best Actor Oscar win.

The film is an intoxicating mix of social satire, personal drama and a picture of an America reeling from economic uncertainty and a wave of employment lay-offs. Clooney plays a smooth professional who is hired by businesses to fire employees. He is a jetsetter who feels more comfortable in an airplane at 30,000 feet than he does in his depressing apartment in Omaha, Nebraska, where the company he works for is based. In the course of the film, he has a critical and spiritual awakening that he is missing out on life's tender moments by being constantly a man on the go.

Reitman, the son of Ivan Reitman (GHOSTBUSTERS), has been capturing similar zeitgeist moments with his first two films, the corporate satire THANK YOU FOR SMOKING and the critically acclaimed JUNO. This year, expect to see Reitman nominated as both Best Director and for his zingy screenplay come Oscar night.

UP IN THE AIR competes for the Golden Globe/Best Drama with a distinguished list of competitors including AVATAR, THE HURT LOCKER, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS and

Sandy Mandelberger, Awards Watch Editor

2009 GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

BEST PICTURE: DRAMA
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”
“Up in the Air”

BEST PICTURE: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
“500 Days of Summer”
“The Hangover”
“It’s Complicated”
“Julie & Julia”
“Nine”

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
James Cameron, “Avatar”
Clint Eastwood, “Invictus”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the AIr”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”

BEST ACTOR: DRAMA
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Tobey Maguire, “Brothers”

BEST ACTRESS: DRAMA
Emily Blunt, “The Young Victoria”
Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Gabourey Sibide, “Precious”

BEST ACTRESS: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Sandra Bullock, “The Proposal”
Marion Cotillard, “Nine”
Julia Roberts, “Duplicity”
Mery Streep, “It’s Complicated”
Meryl Streep “Julie & Julia”

BEST ACTOR: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Matt Damon, “The Informant”
Daniel Day Lewis, “Nine”
Robert Downey, Jr., “Sherlock Holmes”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “500 Days of Summer”
Michael Stuhlbarg, “A Serious Man”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Julianne Moore, “A Single Man”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“A Prophet”
“Baaria”
“Broken Embraces”
“The Maid”
“The White Ribbon”

BEST SCREENPLAY
“District 9”
“The Hurt Locker”
“It’s Complicated”
“Up in the Air”
“Inglourious Basterds”

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Michael Giacchino, “Up”
Marvin Hamlisch, “The Informant”
James Horner, “Avatar”
Abel Krozeniowski, “A Single Man”
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, “Where the Wild Things Are”

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“Up”