December 10, 2023
WRITTEN BY: ADRIANO
This year sees the Golden Globes take one of their biggest shake ups since… well, last year, when they had another big shakeup. For the 81st Golden Globes, which take place on January 7th, 2024, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (or HFPA), the usual voting body for the Golden Globes, has been disbanded. Since then, Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge Industries have acquired the awards show, and expanded the voting body from 200 voters to 300 while championing a 60% racially and ethnically diverse contingent of voters. Alongside the voting change, a new category has been added to the film side, the controversial Cinematic and Box-Office Achievement Award, and most interestingly enough, the categories’ nomination count has been expanded from five slots to six.
With that, many questions arise as to what the Golden Globes will look like this year. We’ll likely see the films we expect to dominate the awards season going forward to do well here, such as Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. And of course, “Barbenheimer” is highly expected to dominate on both sides of the aisle with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer on the dramatic side and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie on the musical/comedy side.
The bigger questions are reserved for the fringe contenders, such as Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, or even Blitz Bazawule’s The Color Purple. The Color Purple, in particular, because in other years, a crowd-pleasing musical would likely annihilate at the Golden Globes; however, with this new voting body, while I personally find it likely the film will receive nominations, will it receive as many nominations as one would expect? As for an international title like Anatomy of a Fall or Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, will these types of titles fare better than they have in the past with the new voting body?
Either way, for many titles, this will be the jumping-off point for the rest of the awards season. I highly expect Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction and Celine Song’s Past Lives to cement their spots in the Best Picture race, but for other titles, I’m more interested in whether or not they will get the platform to show that they are here to stay. Titles such as Ben Affleck’s Air, Todd Haynes’ May December, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, and Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw are where we can see who means business and who will be missing out on awards season altogether.
All that said, I’m just excited that awards season is officially upon us, so get ready… because the Golden Globes are about to fire the starting gun!
Side note: For the sake of clarity and due to a lack of understanding at this point in time, I’ve decided not to focus on the television side, so this will only focus on the film side of the Golden Globes.
Without further ado, here are my predictions:
Best Motion Picture - Drama
OPPENHEIMER
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
MAESTRO
ANATOMY OF A FALL
PAST LIVES
THE IRON CLAW
Alt: PRISCILLA
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Carey Mulligan - MAESTRO
Sandra Hüller - ANATOMY OF A FALL
Lily Gladstone - KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Cailee Spaeny - PRISCILLA
Greta Lee - PAST LIVES
Annette Bening - NYAD
Alt: Teyana Taylor - A THOUSAND AND ONE
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Cillian Murphy - OPPENHEIMER
Bradley Cooper - MAESTRO
Leonardo DiCaprio - KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Colman Domingo - RUSTIN
Zac Efron - THE IRON CLAW
Andrew Scott - ALL OF US STRANGERS
Alt: Adam Driver - FERRARI
Outstanding Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy
BARBIE
POOR THINGS
THE HOLDOVERS
AMERICAN FICTION
THE COLOR PURPLE
MAY DECEMBER
Alt: WONKA
Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy
Emma Stone - POOR THINGS
Margot Robbie - BARBIE
Natalie Portman - MAY DECEMBER
Fantasia Barrino - THE COLOR PURPLE
Jennifer Lawrence - NO HARD FEELINGS
Ayo Edebiri - BOTTOMS
Alt: Eve Hewson - FLORA AND SON
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy
Paul Giamatti - THE HOLDOVERS
Jeffrey Wright - AMERICAN FICTION
Timothee Chalamet - WONKA
Nicolas Cage - DREAM SCENARIO
Jason Schwartzman - ASTEROID CITY
Gael Garcia Bernal - CASSANDRO
Alt: Matt Damon - AIR
Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in Any Motion Picture
Danielle Brooks - THE COLOR PURPLE
Da’Vine Joy Randolph - THE HOLDOVERS
Emily Blunt - OPPENHEIMER
Taraji P. Henson - THE COLOR PURPLE
Penelope Cruz - FERRARI
Jodie Foster - NYAD
Alt: America Ferrera - BARBIE
Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in Any Motion Picture
Ryan Gosling - BARBIE
Robert Downey Jr. - OPPENHEIMER
Mark Ruffalo - POOR THINGS
Willem Dafoe - POOR THINGS
Robert De Niro - KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Charles Melton - MAY DECEMBER
Alt: Dominic Sessa - THE HOLDOVERS
Best Director
Christopher Nolan - OPPENHEIMER
Yorgos Lanthimos - POOR THINGS
Martin Scorsese - KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Greta Gerwig - BARBIE
Bradley Cooper - MAESTRO
Justine Triet - ANATOMY OF A FALL
Alt: Alexander Payne - THE HOLDOVERS
Best Screenplay
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach - BARBIE
Tony McNamara - POOR THINGS
David Hemingson - THE HOLDOVERS
Christopher Nolan - OPPENHEIMER
Celine Song - PAST LIVES
Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese - KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Alt: Cord Jefferson - AMERICAN FICTION
Best Motion Picture - Animated
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
ELEMENTAL
THE BOY AND THE HERON
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM
NIMONA
CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET
Alt: THE PEASANTS
Best Motion Picture - Non-English Language
ANATOMY OF A FALL
SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
THE TASTE OF THINGS
PERFECT DAYS
THE BOY AND THE HERON
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Alt: THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE
Best Original Score
Ludwig Göransson - OPPENHEIMER
Robbie Robertson - KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Daniel Pemberton - SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen - PAST LIVES
Thomas Newman - ELEMENTAL
John Williams - INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
Alt: Jerskin Fendrix - POOR THINGS
Best Original Song
I’m Just Ken - BARBIE (Written by: Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt)
What Was I Made For? - BARBIE (Written by: Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell)
Keep it Movin’ - THE COLOR PURPLE (Written by: Halle Bailey, Denisia Andrews, Brittany Coney, and Morten Ristorp)
Am I Dreaming - SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (Written by: Mike Dean, Peter Lee Johnson, Rakim Mayers, Roisee, Landon Wayne, and Leland Wayne)
A World of Your Own - WONKA (Written by: Neil Hannon)
High Life - FLORA AND SON (Written by: Gary Clark, John Carney, and Eve Hewson)
Alt: Can’t Catch Me Now - THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES (Written by: Dan Nigro and Olivia Rodrigo)
Cinematic and Box-Office Achievement Award
BARBIE
OPPENHEIMER
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3
JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM
THE LITTLE MERMAID
ELEMENTAL
Alt: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1
Photo Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures