The Golden Globes is an award ceremony celebrating a year’s worth of film and television in the USA. The 2018 edition of the awards, which are the 75th Golden Globes will be coming from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on January 7th. Who gets to vote on the awards? The members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and all of this started way back in 1944.
In the Motion Pictures awards categories, there are fifteen different accolades up for grabs in the evening, including the big hits of the Best Motion Picture (Drama) and the Best Actor and Actress awards. The television awards were sparked off in 1956 and now there are eleven different awards that can be scooped up. So there is a lot to get through on the night and it is Comedian and talk show host Seth Meyers who will be hosting the awards.
Here we will be taking a look at some of the main contenders in some of the main awards categories. Heading up the honours with the most nominations of the 75th Golden Globes is the movie The Shape of Water which has seven nominations.
Best Motion Picture Drama
Nominations:
Call Me by Your Name 8/1
Dunkirk 4/1
The Post 7/4
The Shape of Water 9/4
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 3/1
The most likely outcome in this one is that it going to be a two-horse race between The Post and The Shape of Water. Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy The Shape of Water set during the Cold War, perhaps has a slight edge just because of creativity and being so visually stunning. But for a no-nonsense movie with a stunning cast running it like Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, The Post is a serious challenger in what is a pretty strong category this year. Back The Shape of Water to edge it though at 3/1.
Best Motion Picture Musical/Comedy
Nominations:
The Disaster Artist 10/1
Get Out 5/2
The Greatest Showman 20/1
I, Tonya 14/1
Lady Bird 4/9
Get Out really has to get pretty close to winning this one. It has just about everything, social commentary on racism running through it as well as being a tremendously dark satire. It’s so original, so creative and gripping. Lady Bird, a coming of age comedy though hit a lot of headlines in 2017 for being the first movie to get a perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That will have raised its popularity and because it isn’t going up against the heavyweight dramas it should put in a pretty strong showing here. This is a tight one and at 4/6 odds on, it’s probably worth riding Lady Bird.
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Nominations
Timothée Chalamet – Call Me by Your Name as Elio Perlman 7/2
Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread as Reynolds Woodcock 10/1
Tom Hanks – The Post as Ben Bradlee 11/1
Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour as Winston Churchill 3/10
Denzel Washington – Roman J. Israel, Esq. as Roman J. Israel 16/1
The powerful portrayal of Winston Churchill by Gary Oldman in the Darkest Hour is the standout performance of these nominees. This could well be an Oscar year for him too on the back of this. He is going to take some beating in this category. The one who could upset the apple cart would be Timothée Chalamet for his strong coming-of-age performance about sexual awakening. Still, this should be Oldman’s night.
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Nominations
Jessica Chastain – Molly’s Game as Molly Bloom 12/1
Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water as Elisa Esposito 6/4
Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as Mildred Hayes 6/5
Meryl Streep – The Post as Kay Graham 5/1
Michelle Williams – All the Money in the World as Gail Harris 16/1
Frances McDormand is likely going to sweep this and walk away with the accolade. This is a really strong category this year because of Meryl Streep’s performance in The Post and the heavyweight presence of The Shape of Waters and the stunning performance from Sally Hawkins who connects without words. However, McDormand’s character in Three Billboards is so engaging, so stunningly powerful and carries such pathos and humour, she can take this
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Nominations
Steve Carell – Battle of the Sexes as Robert Larimore Riggs 10/1
Ansel Elgort – Baby Driver as Baby / Miles 25/1
James Franco – The Disaster Artist as Tommy Wiseau 2/5
Hugh Jackman – The Greatest Showman as P. T. Barnum 16/1
Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out as Chris Washington 3/1
Ansel Elgort delivered so highly in Get Out that he gets our nod. A young black man getting terrorised by the family of his white girlfriend was a tricky one to pull off with dark humour, emotion and just holding the screen every time he was on it. The role has tremendous depth of humour and fears all rolled up into one ball that he is our tip. At 3/1 with Ladbrokes, Kaluuya can beat out favourite James Franco, who was hilariously brilliant in The Disaster Artist.
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Nominations
Judi Dench – Victoria & Abdul as Queen Victoria 8/1
Helen Mirren – The Leisure Seeker as Ella Robina 22/1
Margot Robbie – I, Tonya as Tonya Harding 7/2
Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird as Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson 4/11
Emma Stone – Battle of the Sexes as Billie Jean King 9/1
This is certainly where Lady Bird could deliver. Saoirse Ronan really makes the story come to life and is the picture-perfect portrayal of the young character. The Irish actress is likely to get the award for this one because she really made a huge splash in this one. This category doesn’t need further exploration.
Best Director
Nominations
Guillermo del Toro – The Shape of Water 13/8
Martin McDonagh – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 12/1
Christopher Nolan – Dunkirk 8/13
Ridley Scott – All the Money in the World 22/1
Steven Spielberg – The Post 10/1
A stacked category here and Nolan is the favourite for the sheer epicness of Dunkirk. However, Guillermo del Toro brought his A-game and then some to the table in The Shape of Water. This is storytelling at its very best and has every chance of getting the title here. Del Toro’s creativity is pretty much endless and even though he is going as 13/8 second favourite with Ladbrokes, he has to be in with more than a fair shout here and gets our tip.
Best TV Series – Drama
Nominations
The Crown 5/1
Game of Thrones 9/1
The Handmaid’s Tale 6/1
Stranger Things 8/1
This Is Us 8/1
The Crown (Netflix) won this last year and is back again to have another crack at the title. However, there is perhaps more serious challenges coming in this time including The Handmaid’s Tale and history does kind of nod towards this award going to a show in its first season. Stranger Things has been highly hyped along the way and would likely win any public popularity vote and the Game of Thrones? GOT has been up for this before but has failed to get it. The Handmaid’s Tale looks a solid wager in this one and it gives the voters a chance to make a political statement. Plus it totally crushed it at the Emmys.
