American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave emerged as the early frontrunners for awards season, as both films picked up seven nominations at the 71st annual Golden Globes. David O Russell's conman caper dominated the Globes' comedy-or-musical section, while Steve McQueen's slavery saga held sway in the neighbouring drama category. The race towards Oscar night now looks set to pit the disreputable crime romp against the weighty expose of institutionalised American evil.  Based on Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir, 12 Years a Slave stars the British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as a free man from New York state, sold into bondage in Louisiana. Its nominations include best director, best dramatic actor and the crowning best film drama.  American Hustle, meanwhile, stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as a pair of con artists who find themselves press-ganged into helping with an FBI operation. It was shortlisted for best comedy-or-musical, in addition to the best actor and actress prizes in the comedy-or-musical section. The two main contenders are only brought together in the directing category, where O Russell and McQueen are bracketed alongside Paul Greengrass (for Captain Phillips), Alexander Payne (Nebraska) and Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity).  Announced at a dawn press conference in Beverly Hills, the Globe nominations spelled good news for British acting talent. In addition to Ejiofor and Bale, the race finds room for Idris Elba (nominated for his role in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Kate Winslet (Labor Day), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks), Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) and Judi Dench (Philomena).  In the immediate wake of the announcement, bookmakers established Cate Blanchett as the favourite to win the dramatic actress award for her acclaimed, anguished turn in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, with Greta Gerwig tipped to win the comedy-or-musical prize for her performance in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha. Ejiofor is the runaway frontrunner for the best dramatic actor Globe, while 77-year-old Bruce Dern looks to have the edge in the neighbouring category thanks to his role as a desperate American dreamer in Payne's black-and-white Nebraska.  Elsewhere, several of the year's most critically acclaimed pictures were left to fight it out in the best foreign language section. The sidebar is dominated by the French romance Blue Is the Warmest Colour, winner of the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes film festival, and the dark Italian satire The Great Beauty, which swept the European film awards last weekend. Rounding out the section is The Past (Iran), The Hunt (Denmark) and Hayao Miyazaki's animated epic The Wind Rises (Japan).  Voted for by approximately 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes have a reputation for establishing a consensus ahead of the Oscar nominations which follow in January. The main winners at last year's event included the Ben Affleck thriller Argo, Lincoln actor Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence, star of Silver Linings Playbook. All went on to repeat their victories at the Academy awards.  The 71st Golden Globes will be announced on January 12 2013 in a ceremony presented, for the second year running, by US comedians Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.  • Golden Globes 2014: full list of nominations• Golden Globes 2014 nominations - in pictures
Hard-hitting slavery drama and rambunctious crime caper face off with seven nominations each as the awards season gets into gear