Note: This feature was originally published back in December 2015.
On Sunday night, the 2016 Golden Globe Awards will air, and it’ll be time yet again to gather around and watch as the brightest stars of TV and film get roaring drunk in each other’s company, all while that strange shadow organization known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association distributes statues to the most famous people they can get to show up.
(Again, how else do you explain that Best Picture nom for The Tourist a few years back?)
Most importantly, the Globes are the gateway to the televised awards season, all leading up to the Oscars. So, in the first of what will likely be a number of prediction pieces, your friendly neighborhood film staff at Consequence of Sound has put together our predictions for who we think will take home a Globe this year, and who we think is the most deserving among those nominated. We’ll even toss out a few snubs that we found particularly glaring.
Feel free to use the following as a handy primer when you’re picking your own ballots while drinking in a living room somewhere, the way we most likely will be as well. You can even share your own picks below.
–Dominick Suzanne-Mayer
Film Editor
Best Animated Feature Film
Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun The Sheep
What should win: Anomalisa
What will win: Inside Out
What was snubbed: World of Tomorrow
Any year where Pixar puts out two films — in this case, one great, one merely really good — is a good year for animation. Even The Peanuts Movie and Shaun the Sheep are critically acclaimed, so there are no true duds in this crop of nominees. That being said, the race is patently between Charlie Kaufman’s somber, revelatory Anomalisa and Pete Docter’s complex, exciting Inside Out – the former more appealing to the adult film snob set, the latter offering accessibility along with its great big beating heart. I’d be equally happy with either film winning; while Kaufman’s beautiful stop-motion film delves deep into the bittersweet mindset of middle age, Inside Out compellingly lays out the psychology of adolescence in a much sneakier and more subversive way. That being said, Kaufman’s impressive achievements in stop-motion animation (and its comparative novelty) will likely win it the award.
–Clint Worthington
Best Foreign Film
The Brand New Testament
The Club
The Fencer
Mustang
Son of Saul
What should win: Son of Saul
What will win: Son of Saul
What was snubbed: A thousand other movies.
The buzz surrounding László Nemes’ Hungarian feature, Son of Saul, is loud and unavoidable, with one reviewer going so far as to say it’s “the most important Holocaust movie ever made.” Way to set the standards high, reviewer. While the other nominees have won acclaim at high-profile festivals in Cannes and Berlin, there were a number of foreign-language films that deserved just as much attention. Romania’s The Treasure, Germany’s Phoenix, Brazil’s The Second Mother, and Ukraine’s The Tribe are but four snubs — or maybe the field was just too strong this year. Hell, The Second Mother’s Regina Casé should have received a nom for Best Actress but that’s for another category. Read up on these movies before the big ceremony. Not the Globes, the Oscars.
–Justin Gerber
Best Original Score
Carter Burwell, Carol
Alexandre Desplat, The Danish Girl
Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
Daniel Pemberton, Steve Jobs
Bryce Dessner, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto, The Revenant
Who should win: Carter Burwell
Who will win: Bryce Dessner, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto
Who was snubbed: Michael Giacchino, Inside Out; Junkie XL, Mad Max: Fury Road; Disasterpeace, It Follows
Carter Burwell’s a very well-liked and respected composer that’s been in the business for years. He’s scored every Coen film, worked on small and big budget features, and with Carol, he’s getting the attention he deserves for his vintage, somber, echo-y score. It’s award-worthy by gum.
But these are the Globes. Their awarding for scores seldom lines up with the Oscars. Remember when Alex Ebert won for All is Lost? Me neither, but that score didn’t make it to the Oscars. The point being, all bets are off, so we’ll say The Revenant will win because it’s percussive, moody throbbing commands attention more easily.
Although, Junkie XL’s score for Fury Road totally could have fit that bill, but like whatever. Same for Disasterpeace’s inventively glitch-laden music for It Follows. And where did Michael Giacchino’s sparkly, spunky music for Inside Out go? I’m not bitter…
–Blake Goble
Best Original Song – Motion Picture
Ellie Goulding, “Love Me Like You Do” (Fifty Shades of Grey)
Brian Wilson, “One Kind of Love” (Love & Mercy)
Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, “See You Again” (Furious 7)
David Lang, Simple Sound #3 (Youth)
Sam Smith, “Writing’s On The Wall” (Spectre)
Who should win: David Lang
Who will win: Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth
Who was snubbed: The Weeknd, Fifty Shades of Grey and Lady Gaga, The Hunting Ground
It’s strange that, when it comes to the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, that an Ellie Goulding song most wouldn’t immediately associate with the film got the nod over a Weeknd track that can’t help but invoke memories of disappointingly chaste humping. But that’s neither here nor there. In terms of which song “should” win, it’s hard to argue against David Lang’s work in Youth, given that it has something no other nominee can boast: a genuine thematic importance to the larger film in which it’s featured. Having said that, it’s hard to argue against Furious 7’s elegy to Paul Walker, even though it inches us ever closer to a world in which Academy Award-winner Wiz Khalifa is a thing. It was one of 2015’s biggest radio hits, so it’s hard to see the Globes going any other way.
–Dominick Suzanne-Mayer
Best Performance by a Supporting Actress
Jane Fonda, Youth
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Who should win: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Who will win: Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Who was snubbed: Mya Taylor, Tangerine
A lot of old warhorses here with a relative newbie. While I didn’t care as much about Ex Machina as roughly the rest of the world, Vikander was stunning. In my review I wrote, “Labeling an actor’s performance as robotic is usually an insult, but as Ava, Vikander is a revelation. Much like the alien in Under the Skin, the humanoid in Ex Machina is clearly uncomfortable in her body, though she wants to be human.” You don’t believe Ava is a robot played by a human — you’re convinced she’s a robot. Winslet has been nominated for nearly a dozen Globes, winning three. She’ll likely take home a fourth for a wonky-accent performance in Steve Jobs (she was fine, the movie was good).
A nomination for Mya Taylor’s performance as Alexandra in Tangerine would have been equal-parts eye-opening and deserved. Taylor plays the only character in the film who still dreams of a better tomorrow, no matter how impossible that may be to attain (lonely barroom performance is the film’s standout scene). Actors playing trans characters have won before and women playing men have been nominated before. So when will be the right time come to nominate a trans actor for playing a trans role?
–Justin Gerber
