Thursday, the Golden Globe nominations were revealed, putting “Frost/Nixon,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Doubt” under the spotlight of this season’s awards, with five nods for each of the three movies.

If the nominations did not quite come as a surprise to many, it was the movies and the actors that got snubbed this year that managed to raise some questions and leave people wondering why.

Firstly, the epic drama starring Nicole Kidman “Australia” was completely shut down for the 2009 awards, leaving little hope for an Academy Award for the movie that everybody deemed as a likely Oscar nominee.

Moreover, the biopic “Milk,” starring Sean Penn in the role of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, received only one nod, while Clint Eastwood had to settle for a best original score nomination for „Challenging” and a best original song one for „Gran Torino.” Many had expected Eastwood to earn nods for the best director and best actor categories.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” part of the director’s Batman series, also received a single nomination for best supporting actor, earned posthumously by actor Heath Ledger for his portrayal of the Joker character. On January 22 this year, Ledger, 28, died of prescription medication overdose.

The Golden Globe Awards, which are given by the 90-member Hollywood Foreign Press Association comprising mostly freelance writers, are scheduled to air at 8 p.m. on NBC from the Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2009.