The U.S. Civil War-era drama “Lincoln” led Hollywood's annual Golden Globe awards Thursday with seven nominations, including best drama, best director for Steven Spielberg and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.

Tied for second place with five nominations each are Ben Affleck's Iran hostage-crisis thriller “Argo” and Quentin Tarantino's slavery-era Western “Django Unchained.”

The Golden Globe Awards, which will be given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 13, are among the most widely watched honors programs leading up to the Oscars at the end of February.

Other best drama nominees announced Thursday are “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the hunt for Osama bin Laden and shipwreck tale “Life of Pi”

In the running for best comedy or musical are Indian-themed “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Les Miserables,” “Moonrise Kingdom, and “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.”

Unlike the Academy Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has separate categories for film dramas and comedies.

Day-Lewis's powerful performance as U.S. President Abraham Lincoln will compete against Denzel Washington's alcoholic airline pilot in “Flight,” among best dramatic actor contenders.

Richard Gere's role as a corrupt financial executive in “Arbitrage,” John Hawkes as a severely disabled man in “The Sessions” and Joaquin Phoenix's drifter in “The Master” round out the field.

Dramatic-actress nominees include Jessica Chastain as a CIA analyst “Zero Dark Thirty,” Marion Cotillard as a whale biologist beset by tragedy in “Rust and Bone,” and Helen Mirren as Alfred Hitchcock's strong-minded wife in “Hitchcock.”

Naomi Watts as a woman caught up in a devastating tsunami in “The Impossible,” and Rachel Weisz as a woman ruined by an affair in “The Deep Blue Sea” were also nominated.