We go full Global with predictions
Will it be mob rule with Martin Scorsese’s heavyweight “The Irishman” at the Golden Globe Awards? Might “Marriage Story,” which leads the field with six nominations, add some serious drama to the night? Or will folks be most interested in the original-song throwdown between Beyoncé and Taylor Swift?
The road to next month’s Academy Awards has its first big stop of the new year at the 77th Golden Globes (NBC, Sunday, 8 p.m. EST/5 PST), hosted for the fifth time by Ricky Gervais. We won’t know who’s up for Oscars until Jan. 13, but after a spate of early accolades, finally some serious hardware will start being handed out courtesy of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
USA TODAY predicts who will win (and who should) in the top movie categories. (For the record, we’re picking Queen Bey’s “Lion King” song “Spirit” to rule over TSwift’s “Cats” tune “Beautiful Ghosts.”)
DRAMA
“The Irishman” “Marriage Story”
“1917”
“Joker”
“The Two Popes”
Will win: “The Irishman”
Should win: “Marriage Story”
Scorsese’s Netflix crime epic has been going gangbusters and is up for acting, screenplay and directing honors at the Globes, so “The Irishman” could cement itself as an Oscar front-runner. Yet so could “Marriage Story,” whose tale of a messy cross-country divorce is full of relationship nuance and tear-jerking emotion.
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
“Dolemite Is My Name”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Knives Out”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” “Rocketman”
Will win: “Once Upon a Time”
Should win: ”Jojo Rabbit”
The Globes love A-listers, and “Once Upon a Time,” Quentin Tarantino’s super-cool love letter to 1969 Hollywood, has them in spades with Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. It’ll need all that star power: Taika Waititi’s World War II satire “Jojo Rabbit” was the best movie of 2019 and an ode to love overcoming hate.
ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet”
Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story”
Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”
Charlize Theron, “Bombshell”
Renée Zellweger, “Judy”
Will win/should win: Zellweger
The Renée-ssance is real. Zellweger, with a transformative role as Hollywood legend Judy Garland in the latter months of her life, has been a best-actress favorite since film festival season. With Oscars looming, a major victory is expected here – especially with the performer most primed to upset Zellweger next month, “Us” star Lupita Nyong’o, not even nominated at the Globes.
ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Christian Bale, “Ford v Ferrari”
Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory”
Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”
Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”
Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes”
Will win: Phoenix
Should win: Driver
The late Heath Ledger’s showy performance in “The Dark Knight” as the iconic villain took Globes gold 11 years ago, and it’s likely to happen again with Phoenix’s similarly excellent descent into madness. From now till the Oscars, he’ll tussle often with Driver, whose wider-ranging performance as an embattled dad going through a divorce is more subtle in its emotional power.
ACTRESS IN A COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Awkwafina, “The Farewell”
Ana de Armas, “Knives Out”
Beanie Feldstein, “Booksmart”
Emma Thompson, “Late Night”
Cate Blanchett, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”
Will win: Awkwafina
Should win: Feldstein
Expect a coming-out party for Awkwafina, who had a breakthrough role as a Chinese-American woman who travels to Asia to see her dying grandmother. This is a comedy category, though, and nobody was funnier than Feldstein as an ambitious, brainy teen who finally unleashes her partyhearty side in “Booksmart.”
ACTOR IN A COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Daniel Craig, “Knives Out”
Roman Griffin Davis, “Jojo Rabbit”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Taron Egerton, ”Rocketman”
Eddie Murphy, “Dolemite Is My Name”
Will win: DiCaprio
Should win: Murphy
This is a toss-up between DiCaprio as a washed-up 1960s actor seeking a career resurgence and Murphy as a never-was 1970s entertainer seeing a career resurgence. With three career wins (and 11 nominations), DiCaprio is a Globes favorite, though Murphy (who won in 2007 for “Dreamgirls”) snagging a trophy in his own comeback would be justice served.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”
Annette Bening, “The Report”
Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
Jennifer Lopez, “Hustlers”
Margot Robbie, “Bombshell”
Will win/should win: Lopez
An Oscar face-off seems in the cards between Dern and Lopez, and while the former plays one heck of a scene-stealing divorce attorney, Lopez turned in a career-best role as a scheming stripper and criminal mastermind in “Hustlers.” An outstanding performance, and her just being a hugely successful multihyphenate personality in general, makes a Globe win feel like a formality.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes”
Al Pacino, “The Irishman”
Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Will win/should win: Pitt
There’s always one race every awards season where someone runs the table – like “Green Book” star Mahershala Ali last year and “Darkest Hour” actor Gary Oldman in 2018 – and even against a tough “Irishman” duo, Pitt is poised to be this year’s chosen one. He’s well-loved, has never won an acting Oscar and is simply fabulous as a steely, loyal stuntman who just happens to involve himself in one of the 20th century’s most heinous murders.