Golden Globes 2019: Who Will Win, Who Should Win

Pop culture in the internet age moves pretty fast sometimes. If you don’t slow down and enjoy it every once in a while, you might miss it.

Even as another year’s award season brings with it renewed debates about what purpose awards shows serve in the era of democratized entertainment, we’re moved to read about and watch alike as celebrities receive statues and we, as the viewer, somehow feel that a celebrated cause of our own is being honored.

It’s a little silly, sure, but it’s still a fun and relatively harmless way for audiences to step back and take stock of some of their favorite movies and TV shows, while also arguing with others about their own favorites. (We say “relatively” harmless, because Suicide Squad has an Oscar thanks to this whole process. People don’t forget. We didn’t.)

This Sunday, January 6th, the 76th Annual Golden Globes goes down, giving celebrities another excuse to get drunk as they accept their statues while also giving audiences a reason to get drunk as they heckle the ceremony’s skits. In what proved to be a phenomenal year for both art forms, the races are as hard to call as they’ve ever been.

But fear not: We’ve assembled a primer that you can consider for your predictions and/or soft wagering at parties. (Of course, we also couldn’t help but slip in our own personal picks as well.) Keep these in mind come Sunday, and feel free to join us online as we offer up-to-date coverage throughout the evening. If anything, it’ll give you an opportunity to laugh at any we got wrong … and silently applaud those we got right.

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Best Animated Feature Film

Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

What Should Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
What Will Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Anybody who’s been paying attention to the awards season race so far will notice that these five nominees read like a list of usual suspects in the Animation category. After all, it wasn’t exactly a breakout year otherwise, and even some of the films present would draw a contention or two from various members of our film staff. But without belaboring the point any further, we’ll just say that Into the Spider-Verse is going to win, and deservedly so. It’s likely going to keep winning all the way to, if there’s any justice, the Oscars. –Dominick Suzanne-Mayer

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Best Foreign Language Film

Capernaum
Girl
Never Look Away
Roma
Shoplifters

What Should Win: Roma
What Will Win: Roma

It’s been an all-around great year in this category, to the point where if there weren’t a monolith in the midst, we’d have a hard time calling it for 2019. But Roma has become an arthouse phenomenon in the weeks since its Netflix rollout, a must-see revival of the kind of personal, sweeping filmmaking that populated some of film’s best eras. It’s one of Consequence’s favorite films of last year, but then, so is Shoplifters. Hell, even Capernaum and Never Look Away drew individual year-end votes. There are a lot of great movies coming out from all around the world, if you’re able to find them. –Dominick Suzanne-Mayer

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Best Screenplay, Motion Picture

The Favourite, Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara
Vice, Adam McKay
Green Book, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga and Brian Hayes Currie
If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins
Roma, Alfonso Cuarón

What Should Win: If Beale Street Could Talk
What Will Win: The Favourite

Even if they’ll be split up come Oscars time, you can bet that all of the films nominated by the Globes in the Screenplay category will be up for the top prizes in late February as well. The honor we’d most love to see would be one for Barry Jenkins, who managed the remarkable feat of capturing and translating James Baldwin’s unmistakable command of tone to the screen. No small feat, there. But we’ll hardly be upset if, and likely when, Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara take the prize for their searingly funny work on The Favourite. It’s a real fav … never mind. –Dominick Suzanne-Mayer

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Best Original Score, Motion Picture

Alexandre Desplat, Isle of Dogs
Marc Shaiman, Mary Poppins Returns
Ludwig Göransson, Black Panther
Justin Hurwitz, First Man
Marco Beltrami, A Quiet Place

Who Should Win: Justin Hurwitz
Who Will Win: Ludwig Göransson

Score is a tough category this year, at least for the Golden Globes, because there really isn’t an obvious frontrunner. Also, there are several notable composers missing. Where is Beale Street‘s Nicholas Britell? Or BlackKklansman‘s Terence Blanchard? So, judging from this crop, especially with the curious inclusion of Marco Beltrami, it’s probably going to come down to name recognition alone. That gives Desplat and Hurwitz, two darlings of the awards circuit, a favorable edge, but then you have to remember that Black Panther is the big blockbuster of the bunch. With that in mind, we’re going to gamble and say this one goes to Wakanda, but we would be equally stoked if Hurwitz’s dreamy atmospheres won, too. —Michael Roffman

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Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Mahershala Ali – Green Book
Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Timothee Chalamet – Beautiful Boy
Sam Rockwell – Vice
Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman

Who Should Win: Adam Driver
Who Will Win: Mahershala Ali

Wanna know how you can tell the Globes go by names? Sam Rockwell’s inclusion over his on-screen colleague Steve Carell. The former sticks out in Adam McKay’s political farce like a sore thumb, while the latter gives the weighty supporting performance. Grievances aside, that helps us pare down the nominees in this selection to one name: Mahershala Ali. Not only is he a recent awards champ for Moonlight, but he also has been at the forefront of the outstanding hype for the not-so-outstanding Green Book. The dark horse is Adam Driver, who steals every scene in Spike Lee’s historical drama, and if he manages to come out ahead of everyone, we’ll drop our wine come Sunday night.  –Michael Roffman

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Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Amy Adams, Vice
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Claire Foy, First Man

Who Should Win: Regina King
Who Will Win: Regina King

The strange ongoing debate about where exactly The Favourite‘s leading trio belongs in terms of awards categorization continues, but in the meantime, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone (who both have leading screen time, seriously, why is this a thing) will have to avoid splitting the category for their excellent work. Claire Foy garners the only top-category nomination for the otherwise slept-on First Man, alongside Amy Adams for her quietly eerie work as Lynne Cheney. For our money, though, the top winner at so many ceremonies up to this point will continue onward here. Regina King has been doing outstanding work for decades, and we hope she’ll continue to be recognized for one of her most felt performances yet. –Dominick Suzanne-Mayer

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