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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, best known for handing out the Golden Globes, will be relieved that Ricky Gervais is not returning to host this year’s event. The members and their guests were happy — well, happyish — to endure the English comic’s broad digs in previous years.
Recent revelations in the LA Times may, however, have provided just a little too much comedy gold for the HFPA to comfortably bear. The paper suggested, among other things, that the organisation paid members nearly $2 million to serve on committees and to view competing films.
“Our compensation decisions are based on an evaluation of compensation practices by similar nonprofit organisations and market rates for such services,” an HFPA spokesperson responded.
This is not to suggest that the reliably sharp Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will entirely avoid the topic. Reacting with some imagination to the Covid crisis, the HFPA is embarking on the first bi-coastal staging of the Globes. Fey will be at Manhattan’s Rainbow Room — situated within 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the building that lent its name to her biggest TV hit — while Poehler returns to the Beverly Hilton in LA, the Globes’ usual home.
Recent awards shows such as the Emmys have confirmed that largely online events can (for one year, anyway) work effectively.
Like the upcoming Oscars, for which the Globes offer erratic predictions, eligibility rules have been changed and dates have been shifted. Monday morning’s ceremony (Sunday evening on the LA clock) arrives nearly 14 months after the 2020 event.
As ever, there is Irish talent among the nominees. Brendan Gleeson stands a decent chance of winning best TV supporting actor for his performance as Donald Trump in The Comey Rule.
The hit adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People will, however, have to go some way to get past The Queen’s Gambit and Small Axe in best limited series. Daisy Edgar-Jones, English star of Normal People, also has a fight on her hands as best actress in a limited series.
Still, you never know. With fewer than 90 HFPA members voting, it takes only a tiny surge to turn around the result.

Brendan Gleeson as President Donald J. Trump in The Comey Rule. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS Television Studios/Showtime

Wolfwalkers, by Cartoon Saloon


The nation’s best hope comes, however, in the more buzzy film section. Both the Golden Globe for best animated feature and the equivalent Oscar category currently look like two-horse races between Soul, Pixar’s latest heart-tugger, and Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s Wolkwalkers, another critical smash from Kilkenny’s Cartoon Saloon.
The Irish operation has already clocked up three Oscar nominations in the feature section, but, after triumphing with the Los Angeles and New York Critics Circles, Wolkwalkers looks like their best chance yet to convert to a win. A triumph at the Globes would suggest, ahead of the Oscar nominations on March 15th, that momentum was behind the Marble City team.
What else to look out for? Despite the shifting of release dates — many of the nominated films are, alas, not yet available to stream in this territory — the Globes have ended up with an arresting list of competitors. David Fincher’s Mank, based around the writing of Citizen Kane, tops the nominations chart with seven spots. Aaron Sorkin’s Trial of the Chicago 7, another historical drama, is just behind with six nods.
But the frontrunner for best dramatic film might still be Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland. Following Frances McDormand’s financially embarrassed senior as she roams the US, the film has been in prime spot since winning the Golden Lion at Venice in early September.

Maria Bakalova, breakout star of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (to give the thing its full title). Photograph: Elizabeth Weinberg/The New York Times

Frances McDormand in Nomadland. Photograph: Searchlight Pictures


Nomadland will face fierce competition from Mank, Trial of the Chicago 7 and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, a striking feminist revenge drama, but Ms Zhao should take best director at a stroll. She would thus, after Barbra Streisand in 1983, become only the second woman to win that prize. Eight women have been nominated in Globe history and three of those are in competition this year: Zhao, Fennell and, for One Night in Miami, Regina King.
Chadwick Boseman is likely to become a rare posthumous acting winner for his role as a troubled jazz musician in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. At time of writing, the African-American star of Black Panther is at a tight 1/4 for the Oscar with major bookmakers.
By splitting some of their film awards between “drama” and “comedy or musical”, the Globes offer opportunities to movies that would otherwise be left out of awards conversation.
The great beneficiary this year is likely to be Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (to give the thing its full title). Sacha Baron-Cohen is a mild favourite for best comedy actor. The film is also a nose ahead for best musical or comedy.
The story of the season, however, is the apparently unstoppable rise of Maria Bakalova. The Bulgarian actor, who plays Borat’s unfortunate daughter, could well skip past Michelle Pfeiffer and Rosamund Pike to take best musical or comedy actress. A place in the best supporting actress race (these things are complicated) at the Oscars seems likely for the hitherto unknown performer.
Here is another oddball possibility. Should the filmed version of Hamilton win best comedy or musical — and it could — then it would be the first winner in that category to have been deemed ineligible at the Oscars (again, it’s complicated).
The biggest losers from the downscaling of the ceremony are the recipients of the lifetime-achievement awards. Jane Fonda would, in normal times, have received an ecstatic reception when getting hold of the Cecil B DeMille Award. Norman Lear, creator of such legendary comedies as All in the Family and The Jeffersons, takes the Carol Burnett Award, the equivalent TV gong.
Wiseacres will be keeping an eye on how Jackson Lee and Satchel Lee deport themselves as Golden Globe Ambassadors. Following in the footsteps of Laura Dern (1982) and Melanie Griffith (1975), Spike Lee’s children will, as the latest honoured children of the stars, be doing various mid-level hosting duties.
When the HFPA appointed the Lees, they cannot have suspected that Da 5 Bloods, their dad’s latest film, would receive not a single nomination. Awkward!
WHAT SHOULD WIN AND WHAT WILL WIN THE GOLDEN GLOBES FILM AWARDS
Best film – drama 
The Father Mank Nomadland Promising Young Woman The Trial of the Chicago 7
Will win: Nomadland Should win: Promising Young Woman 
Best film – musical or comedy 
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Hamilton Music Palm Springs The Prom
Will win: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Should win: Palm Springs
Best director
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman David Fincher, Mank Regina King, One Night in Miami Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7 Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Will win: Chloé Zhao Should win: Chloé Zhao
Best actress in a film – drama
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Andra Day, The United States vs Billie Holiday Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman Frances McDormand, Nomadland Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
Will win: Frances McDormand Should win: Vanessa Kirby
Best actor in a film – drama
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Anthony Hopkins, The Father Gary Oldman, Mank Tahar Rahim, The Mauritanian
Will win: Chadwick Boseman Should win: Riz Ahmed 
Best actor in a film – musical or comedy 
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm James Corden, The Prom Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton Dev Patel, The Personal History of David Copperfield Andy Samberg, Palm Springs 
Will win: Sacha Baron Cohen Should win: Dev Patel 
Best actress in a film – musical or comedy 
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Michelle Pfeiffer, French Exit Anya Taylor-Joy, Emma Kate Hudson, Music Rosamund Pike, I Care a Lot
Will win: Maria Bakalova Should win: Maria Bakalova
Best supporting actress
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy Olivia Colman, The Father Jodie Foster, The Mauritanian Amanda Seyfried, Mank Helena Zengel, News of the World
Will win: Amanda Seyfried Should win: Helena Zengel
Best supporting actor
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7 Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah Jared Leto, The Little Things Bill Murray, On the Rocks Leslie Odom Jr, One Night in Miami
Will win: Daniel Kaluuya Should win: Daniel Kaluuya
Best film – foreign language 
Another Round  La Llorona  The Life Ahead  Minari Two of Us
Will win: Minari Should win:Another Round
Best screenplay 
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman Jack Fincher, Mank Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7 Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton, The Father Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Will win: The Trial of the Chicago 7 Should win: Nomadland
Best film – animated 
The Croods: A New Age  Onward  Over the Moon  Soul  Wolfwalkers
Will win: Soul Should win: Wolfwalkers
Best score – film 
Alexandre Desplat, The Midnight Sky Ludwig Göransson, Tenet James Newton Howard, News of the World Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Mank Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste, Soul
Will win: Soul Should win: News of the World
Best original song – film
Fight for You, Judas and the Black Messiah Hear My Voice, The Trial of the Chicago 7 Io Sì (Seen), The Life Ahead Speak Now, One Night in Miami Tigress & Tweed, The United States vs Billie Holiday
Will win: Speak Now Should win: Fight for You