Golden Globes set to kick off in LA
The Golden Globe Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles tonight, with cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain dominating with seven nominations.
Brokeback Mountain has already won a number of US movie awards, including three Critics' Choice Awards.
Cork actor Cillian Murphy is nominated for a best actor Golden Globe award for his role as Patrick "Kitten" Braden in Breakfast on Pluto.
Brokeback Mountain, director Ang Lee’s story of two rugged Western family men (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) concealing their homosexual affair, is expected to do very well.
Along with Ledger, Capote star Philip Seymour Hoffman was a favourite for the dramatic lead-actor prize for his role as gay author Truman Capote.
Felicity Huffman was a front-runner for best dramatic actress for Transamerica, in which she plays a man preparing for surgery to become a woman.
Key wins by those films could help position them for major honours at the Oscars, which occasionally have handed out top acting prizes for performers in homosexual or gender-bending roles but have never given the best-picture Oscar to a gay-themed film.
Oscar nominations come out on January 31, with the awards presented March 5.
