‘Vice’ leads Golden Globe nominations

“Vice,” a biopic about Dick Cheney starring Christian Bale as the former US vice president, on Thursday earned the most Golden Globe nominations with six including best comedy film, as the race to the Oscars ramps up. The nominations, announced in the pre-dawn hours in California, are the first major bellwether of momentum going into the Academy Awards, which take place in February. “Vice” -- which only opens in US theaters on Christmas Day -- bucked some predictions, earning one more nod than popular music romance reboot “A Star Is Born,” but both are now well placed for Tinseltown awards glory.

“I did not know which way ‘Vice’ would land... But I think it just got a major push for the Oscar race,” wrote Sasha Stone, the founder of specialized industry website Awards Daily. Tied with “Star” -- a hit both with critics and at the box office, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper -- at five nominations were bawdy royal tale “The Favourite” and offbeat civil rights dramedy “Green Book.” Right behind them were Spike Lee’s “BlacK - kKlansman,” the true story of a black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a white partner, and hotly-anticipated Disney sequel “Mary Poppins Returns.”

Beyond its best comedy film nod, “Vice” -- a searing look at George W. Bush’s powerful vice president -- picked up a trio of acting nominations for a nearly unrecognizable Bale, co-star Amy Adams as Cheney’s wife Lynne and Sam Rockwell as Bush. Filmmaker Adam McKay picked up a pair of nominations for best director and screenplay. Also winning double nominations were Cooper -- for acting and directing in “Star” -- and Lady Gaga, for acting and best original song (“Shallow”). But co-star Sam Elliott, who plays the brother of Cooper’s aging rocker, was notably snubbed. Vying with “Star” for best drama film are “BlacKkKlansman,” Marvel blockbuster “Black Panther,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and black love story “If Beale Street Could Talk.”