Paul Anderson’s politically charged One Battle After Another leads the Golden Globe nominations with nine, organizers announced Monday, as the race to the Oscars heats up.

Norwegian family dramedy Sentimental Value follows with eight nominations, while period horror Sinners received seven, and Shakespearean family drama Hamnet earned six.

Wicked: For Good garnered five nominations, a disappointing showing for the smash-hit musical, which failed to secure a nod for Best Musical/Comedy.

The Globes, set for January 11, are widely seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards. The ceremony offers separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals, widening the field of stars who could walk the red carpet and adding suspense to the awards season.

One Battle After Another, which centers on an ageing revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti), leads the contenders in the comedy/musical categories.

The film is a rollicking ride featuring leftist radical violence, immigration raids, and white supremacists.

It received nominations for Best Comedy/Musical Picture, Best Director, and five acting nods for DiCaprio, Infiniti, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Teyana Taylor.

Sentimental Value, a moving story of a fractured family, earned nominations for Swedish legend Stellan Skarsgård and co-star Renate Reinsve. It is one of several foreign-language films gaining traction in the main categories, alongside Brazil’s The Secret Agent and South Korea’s No Other Choice.

Wicked: For Good, the blockbuster conclusion to the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, received nominations for Ariana Grande as the bubbly pink-clad Glinda, and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo as the green-skinned Elphaba. It also earned two nods for Best Original Song but missed the Best Picture shortlist.

Variety chief awards editor Clayton Davis predicted a “Murderers’ Row” of candidates for the Best Actress categories, and indeed, the women up for comedy/musical lead acting honors include Oscar winner Emma Stone (Bugonia), Erivo, Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann L.), and newcomer Infiniti.

On the drama side, past Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence (Die, My Love) and Julia Roberts (After the Hunt) will compete with Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Reinsve, Tessa Thompson (Hedda), and Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby). Each main category now has six nominees, up from five in previous years.

Beyond Sentimental Value, the top drama contenders delve into the past.

Sinners, from Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, stars Michael B. Jordan as twins in the criminal underworld who encounter a sinister force while returning home to racially segregated Mississippi in the 1930s. The film was a box-office success, and both Coogler and Jordan secured nominations. It led the Critics’ Choice Awards on Friday with 17 nods.

“It has so much going for it — it’s a big moneymaker, it was a culturally significant hit,” explained Davis.

Hamnet, from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, who tries to forge a career as a playwright while his wife Agnes, played by Buckley, contends with the perils of plague and childbirth in Elizabethan England. Both stars earned nominations, along with Zhao.

Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein earned five nominations, including one for Jacob Elordi as the iconic monster.

Oscar nominations are due on January 22, so the Golden Globes picks begin to map the road to the Academy Awards.

The Globes also honour the best in television, with HBO’s black comedy anthology The White Lotus, sci-fi office thriller Severance, and searing teen murder saga Adolescence leading the contenders.

Last year’s Globes gala, hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser, drew more than 10 million viewers. Glaser will return as host of the January 11 gala in Beverly Hills.