Jewish actors, directors and screenwriters have garnered prominent nominations for the 2011 Golden Globe Awards — a promising augury for the upcoming Oscar picks.
“The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network” led the field with seven and six Golden Globe nominations, respectively, when the list was announced last month.
Nominated in the best actor/actress categories for film were Jesse Eisenberg, who portrays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,” and Israeli native Natalie Portman, a ballet dancer in “Black Swan.”
Also nominated were James Franco as a trapped hiker in “127 Hours” and Jake Gyllenhaal in “Love & Other Drugs.”
Nominated for best supporting actor/
actress were Andrew Garfield as Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in “The Social Network,” Mila Kunis in “Black Swan” and Michael Douglas (whose father, actor Kirk Douglas, is Jewish) for “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”
Jewish writers took three of five nominations for best screenplay: David Seidler for “The King’s Speech,” Aaron Sorkin for “The Social Network,” and Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for “The Kids Are All Right.”
David O. Russell, whose father was Jewish, was nominated for best film director for “The Fighter.” In the musical categories, Danny Elfman (“Alice in Wonderland”) was nominated for best film score, and Diane Warren (“Burlesque”) and Alan Menken (“Tangled”) are in the running for best film song.
The nominations for best foreign film include movies written and directed by a Danish Jew (Susanne Bier, ”In a Better World”) and a French Jew (Radu Mihaileanu, “The Concert”).
In the television categories, “Glee” picked up five nominations. Brad Falchuk, the show’s co-creator, producer, writer and director, is the son of Nancy Falchuk, national Hadassah president.
Best actress nominations went to Lea Michele of “Glee,” Julianna Margulies of “The Good Wife” and Kyra Sedgwick of “The Closer.” Scott Caan, the son of Jewish actor James Caan, is up for best supporting actor in “Hawaii 5-O.”
The winners of the Golden Globe Awards, which are sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will be revealed Jan. 16. Nominations for the Academy Awards are slated to be announced Jan. 25. — jta & nate bloom