T Bone Burnett photo courtesy of tboneburnett.com.

One of the oddities of Hollywood’s awards process is that films that haven’t been released to the general public can still secure major nominations, which pretty much guarantees them getting attention from ticket buyers who might not have gone otherwise.

And that might be at work with Crazy Heart, a movie starring Jeff Bridges that opens on a limited basis Wednesday. Jeff, who sings in the film in his role as a washed-up country star, secured a Golden Globe nomination Tuesday for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture. The music that plays over the closing credits, “The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart),” likewise snared a nod for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture for songwriters Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

It’s the first Golden Globe nomination for T Bone, who’s previously overseen the music for O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk The Line, and for Ryan, who’s made a name as a leading artist in the Americana genre. Recognizing the honor, they’re still refraining from getting too full of themselves.

“I did notice Sir Paul McCartney was in there” among the nominees, T Bone said to the Associated Press. “Isn’t that right? And U2? It’s a formidable group. I would say we have to be the underdog in that group.”

Nonetheless, it adds to the story that’s building around the movie. Jeff and Colin Farrell both sing in the film after working with T Bone and Stephen Bruton, a Kris Kristofferson associate who co-produced Crazy Heart’s music prior to his death in May. Nominations have also come in for the music from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Online, the St. Louis Film Critics and the Houston Film Critics Society. That’s a lot of constructive criticism!

Oddly enough, the final decision on the Golden Globes is made by — get this! — just 83 voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Golden Globes will be presented Jan. 17.

To watch the film this week, you need to be in Los Angeles or New York. It opens in Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix and San Francisco on Christmas Day, and hits theaters in Austin, Boston, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Jan. 8. Everybody else has to wait.

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