George Clooney’s The Ides of March turned out to be quite the spoiler when it swept up a surprising total of four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. (In many ways, the resultant shutting-out of Steven Spielberg with this group began the film’s downward trend this season, which has yet to let up in the weeks since.) Outside of that, however, I managed to foresee a decent amount of the group’s less expected nomination choices — Woody Allen’s Best Director nod, for instance, in addition to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo‘s Original Score nomination and “The Keeper’s” (Machine Gun Preacher) Original Song mention.
That said, I’m still not all that confident in predicting some of the eventual winners, even with the recently-turned-in results of the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, which historically tend to correlate with both the HFPA and the Academy. Many of the categories, at the moment, just seem like they could slide a variety of ways. My trepidation aside, I’m forging ahead with the following winner predictions, knowing full well that, for all of the glitz of the Globes, its impact on Oscar can often be oversold. (Remember the split between Avatar and The Hurt Locker?)
NBC will be airing the Globes, which will kick off at 8 ET tomorrow evening. Ricky Gervais, once again, will be hosting, so you still have reason to tune in even if you’re not crazy about the lineup of nominees. And remember, if you haven’t already, to link up with my Twitter account for live reactions to the televised proceedings.
Best Picture — Drama: The Descendants
Best Picture — Musical/Comedy: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Best Actor — Drama: George Clooney (The Descendants)
Best Actor — Musical/Comedy: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Best Actress — Drama: Viola Davis (The Help)
Best Actress — Musical/Comedy: Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (The Help)
Best Screenplay: Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Original Score: The Artist (Ludovic Bource)
Best Original Song: “Masterpiece” (W.E.)