The recession-era tale Up in the Air led Golden Globe film contenders Tuesday with six nominations, among them best drama and acting honours for George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.

Other drama picks were the space fantasy Avatar, the Iraq War tale The Hurt Locker, the World War II saga Inglourious Basterds and the Harlem drama Precious, based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.

The musical Nine ran second with five nominations, including best musical or comedy and acting slots for Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard.

Also competing for musical or comedy are the romance (500) Days of Summer, the bachelor-party bash The Hangover and two Meryl Streep films, It's Complicated and Julie & Julia. Streep is competing against herself as best actress in the musical or comedy, as chef Julia Child in Julie & Julia and a woman in an affair with her ex-husband in It's Complicated.

In TV categories, nominations for drama series went to HBO's Big Love, Showtime's Dexter, Fox's House, AMC's Mad Men and HBO's True Blood. Musical or comedy series bids went to NBC's 30 Rock, HBO's Entourage, Fox's Glee, ABC's Modern Family and NBC's The Office.

Up in the Air generally has been considered a comedy, but its inclusion in the drama category could give it more weight as a potential favourite for the Academy Awards, where dramatic films tend to dominate. The film also earned best-director and screenplay nominations for Jason Reitman.

The directing category pits Avatar filmmaker James Cameron against ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. Other directing nominees were Clint Eastwood for the South African rugby drama Invictus and Quentin Tarantino for his World War II rewrite Inglourious Basterds.

Best dramatic actor picks

Playing a frequent-flyer junkie in Up in the Air, Clooney had a nomination for best dramatic actor, along with Jeff Bridges as a boozy country singer in Crazy Heart, Colin Firth as a grieving gay academic in A Single Man, Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in Invictus and Tobey Maguire as a prisoner of war in Brothers.

"I suspect we will do a little bit of celebration, not a whole lot, you know. But it's wonderful news," said Freeman, who got the nomination news in South Africa, where he is appearing for premieres of Invictus.

With four nominations, Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds had a surprisingly strong showing. The film was a hit with audiences and critics, but it was considered a bit of an awards long shot beyond a performance by Christoph Waltz, a supporting-actor nominee as a gleefully savage Nazi. Tarantino also was nominated for the screenplay.

"I'm extremely excited and overwhelmed," said Inglourious Basterds co-star Diane Kruger, who helped announce the nominations. "It's the first time I've been part of such a big movie that encountered so much success and love."

Along with Streep, Sandra Bullock also had two nominations, as dramatic actress in the football story The Blind Side, and as a dragon-lady boss forcing her assistant to pose as her fiancé in The Proposal.

'Beyond stunned'

"I am beyond stunned," Bullock said. "Just to be included in the company of these amazing women I have so admired through the years has left me slack-jawed with awe."

Matt Damon picked up two nominations, as well, as musical or comedy actor, playing a whistleblower spinning wild fabrications in The Informant and as supporting actor playing a South African rugby star in Invictus.

Other dramatic actress nominees were Emily Blunt as Britain's monarch in her early reign in The Young Victoria, Helen Mirren as the imperious wife of Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station, Carey Mulligan as a 1960s British teen in an affair with an older man in An Education, and Gabourey Sidibe as an illiterate, abused teen turning her life around in Precious.

Sidibe was nominated for a powerhouse performance in her screen debut after she won the role at an open casting call. One of her big thrills was over the star who announced her nomination.

"I'm watching it with my roommates, with my manager and all these people, and we're watching at the same time, and we all jumped. Well, I jumped, certainly, because Justin Timberlake said my name," Sidibe said.

Surprise nominee

Julia Roberts was a surprise nominee for musical or comedy actress, as a corporate spy in Duplicity, a box-office underachiever that generally was not on the awards radar. Along with Roberts, Streep and Bullock, Cotillard rounded out the category as the wife of an unfaithful filmmaker in Nine.

Day-Lewis, as the Nine filmmaker, scored a nomination for musical or comedy actor. Besides Damon, the category also includes Robert Downey Jr as the London detective in Sherlock Holmes, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a lovesick man in (500) Days of Summer, and Michael Stuhlbarg as a 1960s Jewish academic besieged by crises in A Serious Man.

Up in the Air co-stars Farmiga, playing Clooney's frequent-flyer soulmate, and Anna Kendrick, playing a smart but inexperienced efficiency expert, are competing against each other for supporting actress. Also nominated are Cruz as the filmmaker's insecure mistress in Nine, Mo'Nique as a hateful welfare mother in Precious, and Julianne Moore as a grief-stricken professor's best pal in A Single Man.

Supporting-actor picks

Damon and Waltz are joined in the supporting-actor category by Woody Harrelson as a military man delivering bad news to next of kin in The Messenger, Christopher Plummer as ageing author Tolstoy in The Last Station, and Stanley Tucci as a serial killer in The Lovely Bones.

The 67th annual Globes will be handed out on January 17. The ceremony will be hosted by British comic actor Ricky Gervais.

Hollywood's second biggest film honours after the Academy Awards, the Globes are a key ceremony that sort out the prospects leading up to the Oscar nominations on February 2.

The Globes come six days before nomination voting closes for the Oscars. Globe winners can get a last-minute bump for an Oscar nomination, particularly on smaller films. Last year's best drama winner at the Globes, Slumdog Millionaire, went on to win best picture and dominate at the Oscars.

The Globes are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 85 critics and reporters for overseas outlets.