Golden Globe Nominations announced

Damien Chazelle's “La La Land”, a musical ode to Los Angeles, topped the 2017 Golden Globe nominations this week, picking up seven nods. It was followed closely behind by “Moonlight”, a low-budget coming-of-age drama that received six nods.

The two films have dominated the awards season so far, along with “Manchester by the Sea”, which picked up five nominations, including a best drama nod.

Unlike the Oscars, the Globes separate comedies and musicals from dramatic films, and they also recognise television programming. They also do not award documentaries or below-the-line categories such as film editing, cinematography, or makeup.

“La La Land,” starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling — both of whom scored nominations — will compete in the best musical or comedy category, alongside “20th Century Women”, “Deadpool”, “Florence Foster Jenkins”, and “Sing Street”. In addition to “Manchester” and “Moonlight”, the films competing for drama honors are “Hacksaw Ridge”, “Hell or High Water” and “Lion”.

On the television front, limited series “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson” was tops with five nods. It got Globes attention for the work of Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark, Sterling K Brown as Christopher Darden, and John Travolta as Robert Shapiro.

Globes voters chose to honour several new shows. “Game of Thrones” was the only veteran among best TV drama nominations. The group included “The Crown”, “Stranger Things”, “This Is Us”, and “Westworld”, all of which are in their initial seasons.

Newcomer “Atlanta,” a critically acclaimed look at the Atlanta rap scene, got a best comedy nod as well as best actor acting honors for star Donald Glover. It will head off against “Black-ish” and “Veep”, as well as previous winners “Mozart In The Jungle” and “Transparent”.

It was also a big morning for Mel Gibson's “Hacksaw Ridge”. The World War II drama scored three nominations, including best drama and best actor (Andrew Garfield), while Gibson was nominated for his directing.

There were also some unexpected snubs. “Fences”, an adaptation of August Wilson's stage classic, failed to earn a best drama nomination, and Denzel Washington was shut out of the directing category. He did get a best actor in a drama nod, and co-star Viola Davis received a supporting actress nomination. In another surprise omission, Tom Hanks was overlooked for his performance as hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger in Clint Eastwood's “Sully”. He is considered one of the Oscar front-runners.

 “Silence”, Martin Scorese's late-screening religious epic about Jesuit priests in feudal Japan, was completely shut out, as was “Orange is the New Black”, a perennial awards nominee that got no love.

Jimmy Fallon will host the Globes broadcast, which is set to air on January 8 live from the Beverly Hilton.