Adam McKay’s comedy starring Christian Bale as Dick Cheney picks up most nods. A Star Is Born, The Favourite and Green Book each take five – while Widows and Sorry to Bother You are among high-profile snubs

Dick Cheney may never have officially ruled over America, but Vice, a new biopic about the power-hungry politician, is the surprise leader going into next year’s Golden Globe awards. The comedy stars Christian Bale – who gained 40lb and wears a bald-cap for the role – as George W Bush’s deputy, and has been nominated for best actor, best director, best motion picture (comedy or musical), best screenplay, best supporting actor (for Sam Rockwell, who plays Bush), and best supporting actress (for Amy Adams, who plays Cheney’s wife Lynne).

The film is the Anchorman director Adam McKay’s follow-up to the financial smash The Big Short, which was up for four Globes and five Oscars a couple of years ago – but converted them into only one win.

Set to open later this month in the US, Vice beat predicted frontrunner A Star Is Born, which, having already stormed both the box office and pop charts, was expected today to launch its assault proper on awards season. But in the end, Bradley Cooper’s remake of the classic Hollywood saga had to make do with nods for himself as actor and director, best original song (for Shallow), best leading actress in a drama for Lady Gaga, and best drama.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born. Photograph: Clay Enos/AP

Warner Bros’ decision to enter the film in the drama category rather than “comedy or musical” was controversial but signals its intention to push the title for major awards this season, rather than risk relegation on the basis it might not be sufficiently heavyweight. Twentieth Century Fox has followed suit, trying the same tactic with Bohemian Rhapsody, its Freddie Mercury biopic starring Rami Malek which picked up two nominations.

The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’s black comedy set in the court of Queen Anne, got nominations for screenplay, comedy, leading actress Olivia Colman and supporting actresses Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone.

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Green Book got the same number of nods. The road-trip comedy starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali has come under fire for what some perceive as a whitewashed version of racial history, but it is performing well with audiences and took the Toronto People’s Choice award in September – a gong previously won by the likes of Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave and The King’s Speech, each of which went on to win the best picture Oscar.

Mary Poppins Returns and BlacKkKlansman performed better than expected with four nominations apiece (including Emily Blunt for her leading role in the former); Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and the Marvel movie Black Panther took three apiece. Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma – the film topping most critics’ best-of-2018 lists – also took three: best screenplay, best director and best foreign-language film.

Three of this year’s five best drama nominees – BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther and If Beale Street Could Talk – are films by black directors featuring largely black casts. The spread of acclaim was by and large wider than expected, with surprise nominations for smaller titles such as gritty cop drama Destroyer, Diablo Cody’s post-natal depression comedy Tully, Bo Burnham’s debut Eighth Grade and the Vincent Van Gogh biopic Eternity’s Gate, potentially at the expense of big-hitters such as First Man – the moon landings drama starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong – which took just two nominations.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Viola Davis and Cynthia Erivo in Widows. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Widows, Steve McQueen’s follow-up to 12 Years a Slave, was arguably the greatest casualty – it scored no nominations, not even for much fancied leading actress Viola Davis. Boots Riley’s acclaimed satire Sorry to Bother You also went unrecognised. As did Clint Eastwood’s on-screen swansong The Mule, Hugh Jackman-starring political comedy The Front Runner, historical drama Mary, Queen of Scots and the Ruth Bader Ginsberg biopic On the Basis of Sex.

Cold War, the new film from Ida director Paweł Pawlikowski, was also snubbed, as was First Reformed, Paul Schrader’s return to form starring Ethan Hawke as an anguished priest.

Brits performed well across the board in the film acting categories: as well as nominations for Colman, Weisz and Blunt, Rosamund Pike was recognised for her work playing foreign correspondent Marie Colvin in A Private War, while Richard E Grant took a best supporting actor credit for playing Melissa McCarthy’s dissolute friend in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

There was a strong British showing in the television portion of the awards. The BBC fact-based drama A Very English Scandal received three nominations: a best limited series nomination, a best actor in a limited series nomination for Hugh Grant for his performance as disgraced Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, and a supporting actor in a limited series nod for Ben Whishaw for his performance as Thorpe’s lover Norman Josiffe.

“Very, very kind of the Hollywood Foreign Press. Am opening a jumbo jar of Vaseline in celebration,” Grant wrote on Twitter in response to the nomination.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes in The Bodyguard. Photograph: Des Willie/BBC/PA

Two other BBC productions, Killing Eve and Bodyguard, received multiple nominations: Killing Eve for best drama and best actress in a drama for star Sandra Oh; and Bodyguard for best drama nomination and best actor for star Richard Madden. Madden will face off in that category against Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who was nominated for the final series of The Americans. The 80s spy drama also received a best TV drama nomination and a best TV drama actress nod for Rhys’s partner and co-star Keri Russell.

The best actor – limited series category saw Benedict Cumberbatch recognised for his turn as Patrick Melrose in the Sky Atlantic drug-addiction drama of the same name, while Sacha Baron Cohen got a best actor in a comedy nomination for his work on Showtime’s satirical prank show Who Is America. Thandie Newton, meanwhile, received a supporting actress drama nod for her performance in Westworld.

Hollywood talent was also well accounted for in the TV categories, with Julia Roberts claiming a best actress – drama nomination for paranoid thriller Homecoming, and Amy Adams and Penelope Cruz both receiving best actress – limited series nods for Sharp Objects and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, respectively. Laura Dern was recognised for her performance in the HBO child abuse drama The Tale, while Jim Carrey’s turn as a slowly unravelling children’s TV host in Showtime’s Kidding earned him a best comedy actor nod, and Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin were nominated for best actor comedy and best supporting actor comedy respectively for their roles as bickering old friends in Netflix sitcom The Kominsky Method.

Other series to receive multiple nominations included the Ben Stiller-directed prison break drama Escape at Dannemora, acclaimed Margaret Atwood adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale, the Ryan Murphy-produced trans rights drama Pose, and Amazon comedy The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.

In addition to the regular nominations came the announcement of a new honorary award for achievement in television. The award, which is as yet unnamed, will act as the TV equivalent of the Globes’ Cecil B De Mille Award, which recognises “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christian Slater announces this year’s nominees. Photograph: Chelsea Lauren/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

The Globes reputation as an Oscars bellwether has diminished in recent years, with the organisation increasingly diverging in its choices from the Academy. The makeup of both bodies’ voters also starkly contrasts, since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences increased the number and diversity of its members in recent years. Earlier this year, the Academy invited a record number of new members, adding 928 to the 6,500 or so already in the club. Following the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2016, the body committed to doubling its number of women and diverse members by 2020.

The Globes, meanwhile, are voted for by 90 entertainment journalists based in Los Angeles but writing for international publications. Their identities have long been mysterious, but one of their number, Aida Tekla, came to notoriety earlier this year after an idiosyncratic interview she purportedly conducted with Drew Barrymore ran in EgyptAir’s inflight magazine.

Last year’s Globes were dominated by Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which took best drama, best original screenplay, best actress in a drama and best supporting actor, while Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird won best comedy or musical and best actress in a comedy or musical for Saoirse Ronan. The Oscars, meanwhile, gave best picture (and best director) to Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, while Three Billboards took best actress and best supporting actor. Lady Bird went home empty-handed.

This year’s nominations were read out by actors Terry Crews, Leslie Mann, Christian Slater and Danai Gurira; they were joined on stage by Isan Elba, daughter of Idris and this year’s Golden Globe ambassador. The ceremony will take place on 7 January and be co-hosted by Oh (nominated for Killing Eve) and Andy Samberg, whose appointments were announced on Wednesday.

This year’s Oscars host was revealed the day before, but the choice of Kevin Hart has met with a mixed reception as his history of apparent homophobia came to light. The Academy Awards will take place on 24 February.

• This article was amended on 6 December to correct the spelling of Danai Gurira and a picture caption that mislabelled Christian Slater as Christian Bale.