In what’s usually seen as an indicator as to which way the Oscars will be heading, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association last night handed out its annual Golden Globe awards. Hosted by Ricky Gervais, the event rewarded film and television work over the past 12 months, and managed to throw up a few surprises.

Perhaps, to be fair, we shouldn’t be surprised by James Cameron taking home Best Motion Picture: Drama and Best Director for Avatar, but if we were his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, we might feel that we’ve been robbed. Hollywood loves its money (and no film has made as much as Avatar since Titanic), hence the Academy is likely to lavish Oscar nominations on the film too (some deserved, we should add), but is it a better movie than The Hurt Locker? We’ll let you debate that one.

We don’t see The Hangover, which won Best Picture: Comedy Or Musical picking up a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and we wonder if the leading five are now going to be Avatar, Up In The Air, The Hurt Locker, possibly Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire and Inglourious Basterds. That's the quintet that the Globes nominated in its Motion Picture: Drama category: will they be the Best Picture Oscar nominees too?

Elsewhere, interesting to see Sandra Bullock pick a gong for Best Actress In A Motion Picture: Drama for The Blind Side. We wonder if she’s just been installed as the front runner for a Best Actress Oscar off the back of that. It’s in her favour that the field isn’t particularly strong again this year, and that Meryl Streep already has a mantelpiece groaning under the weight of awards. It might just be Bullock’s year.

It might, wonderfully, be Jeff Bridges’ too. We’ve not seen Crazy Heart yet, but Bridges is long overdue awards attention. Colin Firth in A Single Man may be his biggest threat to taking home Oscar gold, but we’ll get a clearer idea of that when the nominations themselves appear.

We can’t be alone in being thrilled that Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for his stunning, scene-stealing turn in Inglourious Basterds, and with Mo’Nique taking home Best Supporting Actress for Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire, we’d be amazed if the pair didn’t add Oscars to their haul too.

Likewise, Up is a shoo-in for Best Animated Feature, and it’d be great to see the Oscars repeat the giving of a Best Screenplay prize to Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for the terrific Up In The Air (we’re still struggling that the Globes believed the screenplay for the shitty It’s Complicated was worthy of a nomination, mind).

On the television side, we were delighted beyond measure to see John Lithgow and Michael C Hall recognised for their stunning work in Dexter. Next year, Lost is, presumably, going to sweep most of the TV prizes, but this year, Dexter has been the best programme on the box. And the tension that Hall and Lithgow generated is up there with any TV programme or movie over the past 12 months.

We’re happy too to see Alec Baldwin rewarded for 30 Rock, and for the superb Mad Men to win Best Television Series: Drama (even though it’s not better than Dexter!). Predictably, Glee took the Comedy Or Musical equivalent. And Chloe Sevigny for Big Love was a good shout.

Enough babble from us: here’s the list of nominees and winners, and leave your own thoughts in the comments. Is it going to be James Cameron’s year to be king of the world at the Oscars again, we wonder? The race has most certainly begun…

BEST MOTION PICTURE: DRAMA
Avatar

Nominees:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
Up in the Air

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE: DRAMA
Sandra Bullock: The Blind Side

Nominees:
Emily Blunt: The Young Victoria
Helen Mirren: The Last Station
Carey Mulligan: An Education
Gabourey Sidibe: Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE: DRAMA
Jeff Bridges: Crazy Heart

Nominees:
George Clooney: Up in the Air
Colin Firth: A Single Man
Morgan Freeman: Invictus
Tobey Maguire: Brothers

BEST MOTION PICTURE: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
The Hangover

Nominees:
(500) Days of Summer
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Meryl Streep: Julie & Julia

Nominees:
Sandra Bullock: The Proposal
Marion Cotillard: Nine
Julia Roberts: Duplicity
Meryl Streep: It's Complicated

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Robert Downey Jr.: Sherlock Holmes

Nominees:
Matt Damon: The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis: Nine
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg: A Serious Man

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Up

Nominees:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Coraline
The Princess and the Frog

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The White Ribbon (Germany)

Nominees:
Baaria (Italy)
Broken Embraces (Spain)
The Maid (Chile)
A Prophet (France)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Mo'Nique: Precious: Based On The Novel "Push" By Sapphire

Nominees:
Penelope Cruz: Nine
Vera Farmiga: Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick: Up in the Air
Julianne Moore: A Single Man

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Christoph Waltz: Inglourious Basterds

Nominees:
Matt Damon: Invictus
Woody Harrelson: The Messenger
Christopher Plummer: The Last Station
Stanley Tucci: The Lovely Bones

BEST DIRECTOR: MOTION PICTURE
James Cameron: Avatar

Nominees:
Kathryn Bigelow: The Hurt Locker
Clint Eastwood: Invictus
Jason Reitman: Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino: Inglourious Basterds

BEST SCREENPLAY: MOTION PICTURE
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner: Up In The Air

Nominees:
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell: District 9
Mark Boal: The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers: It's Complicated
Quentin Tarantino: Inglourious Basterds

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: MOTION PICTURE
Michael Giacchino: Up

Nominees:
Marvin Hamlisch: The Informant!
James Horner: Avatar
Abel Korzeniowski: A Single Man
Karen O and Carter Burwell: Where The Wild Things Are

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: MOTION PICTURE
The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart

Nominees:
Cinema Italiano from Nine
I Want to Come Home from Everybody's Fine
I Will See You from Avatar
Winter from Brothers

BEST TELEVISION SERIES: DRAMA
Mad Men

Nominees:
Big Love
Dexter
House
True Blood

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES: DRAMA
Julianna Margulies: The Good Wife

Nominees:
Glenn Close: Damages
January Jones: Mad Men
Anna Paquin: True Blood
Kyra Sedgwick: The Closer

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: DRAMA
Michael C. Hall: Dexter

Nominees:
Simon Baker: The Mentalist
Jon Hamm: Mad Men
Hugh Laurie: House
Bill Paxton: Big Love

BEST TELEVISION SERIES: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Glee (Fox)

Nominees:
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
Modern Family (ABC)
The Office (NBC)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Toni Collette: United States Of Tara

Nominees:
Courteney Cox: Cougar Town
Edie Falco: Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey: 30 Rock
Lea Michele: Glee

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Alec Baldwin: 30 Rock

Nominees:
Steve Carell: The Office
David Duchovny: Californication
Thomas Jane: Hung
Matthew Morrison: Glee

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Grey Gardens

Nominees:
Georgia O'Keeffe
Into the Storm
Little Dorrit
Taking Chance

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Drew Barrymore: Grey Gardens

Nominees:
Joan Allen: Georgia O'Keeffe
Jessica Lange: Grey Gardens
Anna Paquin: The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
Sigourney Weaver: Prayers for Bobby

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Kevin Bacon: Taking Chance

Nominees:
Kenneth Branagh: Wallander: One Step Behind
Chiwetel Ejiofor: Endgame
Brendan Gleeson: Into the Storm
Jeremy Irons: Georgia O'Keeffe

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Chloe Sevigny: Big Love

Nominees:
Jane Adams: Hung
Rose Byrne: Damages
Jane Lynch: Glee
Janet McTeer: Into the Storm

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
John Lithgow: Dexter

Nominees:
Michael Emerson: Lost
Neil Patrick Harris: How I Met Your Mother
William Hurt: Damages
Jeremy Piven: Entourage