Jeremy Irvine in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse
Our SAG Award predictions were mostly, though admittedly not fully, accurate. We did, however, correctly predict every single contender for SAG’s Best Actress Award. So, here we are with our last-minute Golden Globe predictions in various motion picture categories.
In a way, the Golden Globes are easier to predict than the SAG Awards or the Oscars because, generally speaking, if you’re star, you’re in. Hence, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie and The Tourist last year. So, who are 2011’s stars, whether in front or behind the camera? Here they are, assuming that there’ll be only five nominees per category:
Best Motion Picture – Drama: Tate Taylor’s all-star The Help, star director Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, star director Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, Bennett Miller’s Moneyball (the Brad Pitt effect), and Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (the Sandra Bullock/Tom Hanks effect).
Runners-up: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, David Yates‘ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (once again, the Brad Pitt effect), and Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar. To a lesser extent: Roman Polanski’s Carnage (the Kate Winslet/Jodie Foster/Christoph Waltz effect), David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. George Clooney’s The Ides of March isn’t an impossibility, but it’s a less likely nominee considering that Clooney will already be getting his invitation to the party via The Descendants (see below).
Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical: Michel Hazanavicius‘ The Artist (can’t escape that one, period; anyways, Jean Dujardin is a major star in France and several other territories from where, surely, some of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association members hail), Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (see the George Clooney effect above), Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Paul Feig’s sleeper box-office hit Bridesmaids, and Jason Reitman’s Young Adult (the Charlize Theron effect). Mike Mills‘ Beginners is a less likely possibility. I should add we’re assuming The Descendants will be listed as a "comedy."
War Horse photo: Andrew Cooper / DreamWorks