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?
The road to next month’s Academy Awards has its first big stop of the new year at the 77th Golden Globes (7 p.m. Sunday on WMAQ-Channel 5), 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.
Here are predictions of who will win (and who should) in the top movie categories.
DRAMA FILM
Nominated:“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 so far, and is up for acting, screenplay and directing honors at the Globes, so “The Irishman” could cement itself as an Oscar front-runner here. Yet so could “Marriage Story,” whose tale of a messy cross-country divorce is full of relationship nuance and tear-jerking emotion that connect more than the aging-gangsters storyline of “Irishman.”
COMEDY OR MUSICAL FILM
Nominated:“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 in a competitive category: Taika Waititi’s World War II satire ”Jojo Rabbit” was a compelling ode to love overcoming hate.
ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Nominated: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, folks. 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
Nominated: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 comic-book villain took Globes gold 11 years ago, and it’s likely to happen again with Phoenix’s similarly excellent descent into madness. Between now and the Academy Awards, 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
Nominated: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
In a category where the newcomers overshadow the awards-season stalwarts, expect a coming-out party for Awkwafina, who had a breakthrough dramatic role as a Chinese-American woman who travels to Asia to see her terminally ill grandmother. This is a comedy category, though, and nobody was funnier than Feldstein as an ambitious, brainy teen who finally unleashes her party-hearty side in “Booksmart.”
ACTOR IN A COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Nominated: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 seeking a career. With three career wins (and 11 nominations), DiCaprio is a Globes favorite, which may tip the scales his way, though Murphy (who notched a 2007 win for “Dreamgirls”) snagging a trophy during his own high-profile comeback would be justice served.
