Here we go!

[Charity]

He'll win hands down! :)

And ofcourse this means an Oscar too YAYY GO GEOFFREY!

Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett will lead a small Australian contingent down the red carpet at next month's Golden Globes ceremony after a number of high-profile candidates including Naomi Watts and Mel Gibson were snubbed.

The nominations for the 62nd Annual Golden Globes ceremony - a reliable indicator for February's Academy Awards - were announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles this morning.

Australia has four nominees - Kidman, Blanchett, Julian McMahon and Geoffrey Rush.

Australians snubbed by the Golden Globes voters included Watts, Gibson, Anthony LaPaglia, Frances O'Connor and screenwriter Stuart Beattie.

The Golden Globes is one of the most influential awards ceremonies on the Hollywood calendar and a nomination can revive or confirm an Oscar contender's chances for the Academy Awards.

A snub can take the heat off an Academy Award campaign and dash an actor's chances of gaining an Oscar nomination.

Kidman's Golden Globe nomination in the best actress in a drama category for her controversial film Birth revives her Oscar chances, although experts say she still faces an uphill battle.

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"Because Birth is a suspense film they tend not to do well at the Oscars," American Oscar expert Tom O'Neil, an author of the book Movie Awards, told AAP.

"I don't expect to see Nicole at the Oscars."

Kidman has plenty of admirers in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) - a group of about 90 journalists who vote for the Golden Globes - so her nomination is not a great surprise.

The HFPA has nominated Kidman five times in the past four years (twice in 2001 for The Others and Moulin Rouge) and has awarded her a Globe three times.

Kidman's competitors for the Golden Globe are: Scarlett Johansson (A Love Song For Bobby Long), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) and Uma Thurman (Kill Bill Vol. 2).

Blanchett's Golden Globe nod firms the chameleon actress as Australia's best chance for an Oscar.

Blanchett was nominated today for best supporting actress for her portrayal of screen great Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator and it makes her the favourite in the category for the Oscars.

Blanchett is also a favourite of the HFPA after three previous Golden Globes nominations with one win in 1998 (Elizabeth - best actress)

A pleased Blanchett appeared on American TV soon after the announcement and she admitted when The Aviator's director Martin Scorsese first asked her to play Hepburn she was terrified.

"When Marty called me I was was gobsmacked," Blanchett said on Good Day Live, an American morning show on Rupert Murdoch's Fox TV Network.

"I'm glad he didn't see me because I was blushing and the backs of my knees were sweating I was so thrilled that he wanted me to play Hepburn.

"Then I hung up and just got completely terrified because the weight of expectation behind playing a role like Hepburn was very daunting."

McMahon scored his Golden Globe nomination in the best actor in a TV drama category for his role as a deviate plastic surgeon in Nip/Tuck.

Rush, the Oscar and Golden Globe winner in 1997 for Shine, was nominated for best actor in a TV mini-series or TV movie for his performance as comedian Peter Sellers in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.

The movie was not shown in US cinemas, but instead had its debut on American premium cable TV network HBO so it qualified for the Globes' TV category.

Rush is competing against Jamie Foxx (Redemption), Mos Def (Something the Lord Made), William H Macy (The Wool Cap) and Patrick Stewart (The Lion In Winter).

LaPaglia and Gibson would be considered the greatest Australian Golden Globes snubs this year.

LaPaglia, the star of the top-rating US TV series Without A Trace, won the Golden Globe last year in the best actor TV drama but could not even manage an invite this year.

McMahon, Michael Chiklis (The Shield), Denis Leary (Rescue Me), Ian McShane (Deadwood) and James Spader (Boston Legal) received the nominations.

Gibson's The Passion of the Christ surprisingly was not nominated in the foreign language category despite grossing more than $US600 million worldwide.

Watts had three potential films up for nomination - The Assassination of Richard Nixon, I Heart Huckabees and We Don't Live Here Anymore.

It may not be a death blow to her Oscar hopes.

Last year she was snubbed when the Golden Globes nominations were announced, but several weeks later the Oscar voters rewarded her with a nomination for 21 Grams.

Beattie, the Australian screenwriter for Collateral, missed out today.

O'Connor, a Golden Globe nominee for Madame Bovary in 2001, could also feel disappointed.

Her co-stars in Iron Jawed Angels - Hilary Swank (actress) and Anjelica Huston (supporting actress) - were nominated today in Globes' TV Mini-Series or TV Movie categories.

The Golden Globes will be announced on January 16.

The Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 25 and the Oscar ceremony is scheduled for February 27.

Australian nominees

Best Actress - Drama:

Nicole Kidman - Birth

Best Supporting Actress - Movie

Cate Blanchett - The Aviator

Best Actor - TV Drama

Julian McMahon - Nip/Tuck

Best Actor - TV Mini-Series or TV Movie

Geoffrey Rush - The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

- AAP