BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) ― Steven Spielberg’s Civil War epic “Lincoln’’ led the Golden Globes on Thursday with seven nominations, among them best drama, best director for Spielberg and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.

Tied for second-place with five nominations each, including best drama are Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage-crisis thriller “Argo’’ and Quentin Tarantino’s slave-turned-bounty-hunter tale “Django Unchained.’’

Other best-drama nominees put forward by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association are Ang Lee’s shipwreck story “Life of Pi’’ and Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden manhunt thriller “Zero Dark Thirty.’’

Nominated for best musical or comedy were: the British retiree adventure “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’’; the Victor Hugo musical “Les Miserables’’; the first-love tale “Moonrise Kingdom’’; the fishing romance “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’’; and the lost-soul romance “Silver Linings Playbook.’’

Globe attention can give contenders a boost for Hollywood’s top honors, the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 10, three days before the Globe ceremony.

Along with Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Spielberg’s epic, best dramatic actor contenders are Richard Gere as a deceitful Wall Streeter in “Arbitrage’’; John Hawkes as a polio victim trying to lose his virginity in “The Sessions’’; Joaquin Phoenix as a Navy veteran under the sway of a cult leader in “The Master’’; and Denzel Washington as a boozy airline pilot in “Flight.’’