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LOS ANGELES - Cate Blanchett's Oscar destiny will likely be decided tomorrow in a decadent ballroom in downtown Beverly Hills.
Toni Collette and Mel Gibson could also resurrect their Academy Award campaigns, while George Miller and his dancing penguins will likely confirm their place as the animation Oscar favourite.
The Australians are all nominees for tomorrow's Golden Globes, the first major pre-Oscar ceremony of the Hollywood awards season.
The Globes, staged in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, are considered important momentum builders for next month's 79th Annual Academy Awards.
In past years, a Globe win has sparked or cemented a nominees' tilt at the Oscars, while a loss has sent hopefuls' campaigns into a fatal tailspin.
Hollywood studios have poured millions of dollars into an Oscar campaign on the back of a Globe win for their film or star.
Blanchett, Collette and Gibson need the help.
Miller, the bespectacled director of animated musical Happy Feet, is the only Australian Globe favourite.
Blanchett, nominated for her tense performance as a British school teacher involved in a sexual relationship with a pupil in Notes on a Scandal, is only given an outsider's chance to win the best supporting actress Globe.
Blanchett is the only A-list actress in her category, but bookmakers and film critics do not have much faith she can win.
"The sure winner here is Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson, this year's Star Is Born story," the New York Daily News predicted.
Hudson, an American Idol TV talent show cast-off, is also the bookie's favourite in the category for her performance as a downtrodden diva in the musical, Dreamgirls.
Collette is up for two awards.
She was nominated in the best actress in a comedy/musical for her performance in the dark comedy, Little Miss Sunshine, but she faces a who's who of acting talent with Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Annette Bening (Running With Scissors), Renee Zellweger (Miss Potter) and Beyonce Knowles (Dreamgirls) the other nominees.
Collette is also nominated in the supporting actress in a TV series, mini-series or movie category for Tsunami, The Aftermath, a mini-series based on the 2004 tsunami that struck Asia.
Gibson's violent new epic using Mayan dialects, Apocalypto, was nominated for best foreign language film.
In the animation Globe race, Miller's Happy Feet is competing with animation studio Pixar's latest blockbuster, Cars, and the critically-acclaimed Monster House.
The Golden Globes are set to begin at 2pm tomorrow.
- AAP
