As we enter big award show-season, Grammy, Golden Globe and Oscar nominations are among the most anticipated (and criticized) lists of the year. Last week’s award list came from the Golden Globes, announcing the nominees for the 2009 edition of the TV and movie award show.

Not important in and of themselves, people pay attention to the Golden Globes because, more than any other fall movie prize, they tend to foreshadow the Oscar nomination slate. With that symbolic importance in mind, here are Listices’ Top 9 2009 Golden Globe Movie Snubs:

• 1. Rachel Getting Married not nominated for Best Picture (in either category): Funny and musical as this family drama is, it could have been nominated in either the Drama or the Musical or Comedy section. Instead, unforgivably, it isn’t nominated in either since both categories are bloated with pandering period dramas (Revolutionary Road, Frost/Nixon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader) and movie tourism (In Bruges, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Slumdog Millionaire, Mamma Mia!).

• 2. Michelle Williams not nominated for Best Actress in a Drama for Wendy and Lucy: So Meryl Streep (proud owner of 6 (six!) Golden Globes) is nominated twice this year, but Michelle Williams is absent? Meanwhile, Angeline Jolie gets nominated for sleepwalking through a similar role (marginalized woman manipulated by scary men in a strange town) in a lesser film (Changeling). No wonder movies starring young women aren’t commercially viable…

• 3. Ben Kingsley not nominated for Best Actor in a Drama for Elegy: Released way too early for award season, Elegy was a small gem powered by Kinsley’s terrific performance as a womanizing professor that flew under the radar (a nice break from the overblown super-epics nominated in this section). Also, Dennis Hopper proved he could act well and not insane in this film, why not toss him a Supporting Actor nomination (in a category that’s already a done deal for Heath Ledger)?

• 4. Phillip Seymour Hoffman not nominated for Best Actor in a Drama in Synecdoche, New York: He gets the supporting role nod for button-pushing Doubt but no mention as Charlie Kaufman’s autobiographical tortured genius?

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  As you can see, this little vampire-lover is bummed about his Golden Globe snubbing.

  5. Let the Right One In not nominated for Best Foreign Language Film: Owing to a mix of snobbery and Hollywood condescension, genre movies never fare well in foreign language award sections. Still, this outstanding Swedish vampire movie about adolescence and sexual awakening with more style than it knows what to do with had better get its dues when the Oscar nominees are announced.

• 6. Steve Coogan not nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for Hamlet 2: A musical comedy with some great moments (and a lot of shortcomings, granted), Coogan single-handedly made this film enjoyable while his supporting cast did little or nothing (Catherine Keener, why weren’t you being your awesome self?). Instead James Franco gets the nod for Pineapple Express and In Bruges’s stars both get nominated (Colin Farrell, really?).

• 7. Slumdog Millionaire not nominated for Best Song: While its score was pretty much standard popcorn fare (can’t we nominate something more deserving for Best Score?), between the new M.I.A. song that showed up during an early chase and the Bollywood number that closed the film, there’s at least one song here that’s better than Miley Cirus’s track from Bolt.

• 8. Rosemarie DeWitt not nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Rachel Getting Married: Though overtly billed as an Anne Hathaway movie, DeWitt’s scene-stealing as the more nuanced sister and titular bride is more praiseworthy.
  

  "You were nominated and I wasn't?!"

• 9. Synecdoche, New York not nominated for Best Screenplay: Adventurous, ambitious and completely original, Kaufman’s epic of mad artistry should win this category, instead it gets the snub. Why not substitute it for Slumdog Millionaire, a movie that lifts TV game show tactics to sustain tension and is mostly a result of amazing visuals and brilliant editing?

Coming soon: Listicles’ Top 9 2009 Oscar Snubs.