Born to Dominate? The 75th Golden Globes Awards Preview

[fandomwarrior]

(Image: NBC News)

The 75th annual Golden Globe Awards will be the first award to kick off the Awards Season gala for the new season, being on January 7, 2018, just less than one week from this post. The new line-up of movies and television shows competing for the award wins have been revealed through the nominations list, which included the likes of Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water and Ryan Murphy's FEUD: Bette and Joan, both being the most-nominated titles in movie and television categories respectively.

Outside the competition aspect of the gala however is the fact that it has become a testament for the resistance against the sexual abuse. After the accusations of Harvey Weinstein due to the mentioned reason, more people spoke up and made it clear that the sexual harassment in the Hollywood industry is awfully rampant, creating a chain of accusations to a couple of new names. The resistance doesn't stop there as the initiative to wear black suits and dresses for the actors who will attend the gala. This will be something that will set this year's Golden Globes apart, in a resistance and solidarity against the sexual abusers hidden in the Hollywood industry.

The new era of the Awards Season battle has been opened, and it has just begun...

THE NOMINEES


Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water lead the movie category with seven nominations which also included the Best Drama Motion Picture category, going up against The Post and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, both with six nominations, in the same category. (Image: IndieWire)

Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water lead the movie category with seven nominations which also included the Best Drama Motion Picture category and the Best Actress category through Sally Hawkins. Rivaling the movie will be the likes of The Post and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, taking six nomination berths that include the Drama Motion Picture race, the Best Director race, and Best Drama Motion Picture Actress race, which all three are involved in with The Shape of Water, in addition to Best Screenplay and Best Original Score. For the Comedy/Musical counterpart, Lady Bird, with four nominations, is the name to watch, being the most-nominated among the category, and will compete alongside The Greatest Showman and I, Tonya (3 nominations), in addition to Get Out (2 nominations) whose Comedy/Musical nominations raised some eyebrows given its horror genre nature of the movie (but the movie itself is also meant to be a satire). The much-anticipated animated feature Coco also receives 2 nominations as well, being Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, challenged by Ferdinand with two nominations of the same kind.

The acting categories for movies will have Tom Hanks (The Post) facing Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.) and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name) in the Best Drama Actor category in what could be The Post's chance to steal a win from the absence of nominees from both Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water. However, its female lead Meryl Streep will be in for the challenge against Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) in the Actress counterpart of the category, but that doesn't stop there as Jessica Chastain (Molly's Game) can cut-off even this three-way rivalry easily if the fate says so, making it a group of hell. The Comedy side of things recognize the performances of I, Tonya's Margot Robbie, Victoria & Abdul's Judi Dench, and Battle of the Sexes's Emma Stone for the Best Actress race and Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya and Baby Driver's Ansel Elgort for the Best Actor. The Supporting categories will finally see the rivalry between The Shape of Water's Richard Jenkins and Three Billboards's Sam Rockwell versus Call Me by Your Name's Armie Hammer for the Best Actor, while Octavia Spencer will take on the likes of Allison Janney (I, Tonya) and Mary J. Blige (Mudbound), among others, in the Best Actress counterpart.


HBO's Big Little Lies leads the TV division with six nominations, and is up for yet another awards sweep after its successful Emmy outing months back. (Image: HBO / Vulture)

Continuing their award-winning success since Emmys, Big Little Lies spreads its wings in the TV categories with six nominations, followed by FEUD: Bette and Joan with four nominations, alongside The Handmaid's Tale, This Is Us, and Fargo with three. BLL, FEUD, and Fargo will face off in the Best Limited Series or Television Movie category alongside the debuting The Sinner. Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale will start off the New Year with three nominations among Drama Series contenders, which also includes the Best Drama Series category. However, drawn against This Is Us, The Crown, Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things might mean that the drama series' campaign might be a bumpy ride, with its closest competitor being This Is Us with three nominations, the same number The Handmaid's Tale has. Last but not least, the Comedy race is fronted by five different series, old and new, all with two nominations which includes the Best Comedy Series nomination. New series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, SMILF, and Will & Grace will face rising veterans black-ish and Master of None, both in the mentioned category and acting-related categories.

Speaking of acting, Best Drama Actress puts out 13 Reasons Why's Katherine Langford and Outlander's Caitriona Balfe, two of online favorites as far as the fandom culture is considered, against award winners Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale) and Claire Foy (The Crown) who might steamroll the first two names. Sterling K. Brown returns to the Best Actor race for this year's Golden Globes, this time for his This Is Us role, now facing Freddie Highmore (The Good Doctor) and Jason Bateman (Ozark). The Comedy Actress race puts out an all-new line-up consisting Pamela Adlon (Better Things), Alison Brie (GLOW), Rachel Brosnahan (Mrs. Maisel), and Frankie Shaw (SMILF), with the Actor counterpart also featuring new names such as Kevin Bacon (I Love Dick) and Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), in addition to Aziz Ansari's eventual Golden Globes nod. The Limited Series field will pit The Wizard of Lies's Robert De Niro, Fargo's Ewan McGregor, and Genius Geoffrey Rush for the Actor, and the tag teams of BLL's Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon versus FEUD's Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon for the Actress, in addition to The Sinner's Jessica Biel. Finally, the Supporting categories will see Emmy winners Laura Dern (Big Little Lies) and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale) competing altogether in the Actress side, while for the Actor side BLL's Alexander Skarsgard will face the likes of Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) and David Harbour (Stranger Things), alongside returning Emmy rivals Alfred Molina and David Thewlis.


Everyone, do realize the same people in this particular scene from The Fault in Our Stars are now both Golden Globe nominees, and has now played in the big leagues. (Image: James Bridges / SheKnows)

Also notable to the nominations list is the inclusion of Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) for Best Supporting Actress in Television Series. At glance, you might think this is another boring set of paragraph to read until you realize there's Ansel Elgort nominated for his Baby Driver role in the Best Comedy Actor and you remember back in the days when they were together in Divergent series and The Fault in Our Stars, two of the teen-genred movies with People's Choice and Teen Choice wins under their belts, both as an actor or the series as a while. To see them both in Golden Globes is quite a testament I appreciate. Shailene has reached first to the big league with an Emmy nomination, and now Ansel has finally followed her steps, making the reunion sweeter yet more prestige than they ever had.

Also, to speak on the context of the Teen genre, 13 Reasons Why also succeeded to make it to the big league although the Netflix series' only hope is literally Katherine and there isn't much odd for her to win. Based on a 2007 novel, it has been the one of the "talk of the town" series of last year, though it's not without its controversies, in which the most notable one is the topic the series tackles: suicide, among others. On one side, the series sheds light on the suicide and raises awareness on how the bullying, especially in school, has a correlation to suicide, as evident with Hannah Baker's rollercoaster life. This has been the topic the series wants to emphasize on, as this has been a very relatable topic that can happen anytime. Yet, on the other side, many people regard the series as the series that "glamorized" and "glorified" suicide. Worse, there's also the contagion effect that followed: A series of suicide cases and attempts, although there are still concerns whether the show really is the outright cause for the cases (The JAMA Internal Medicine study results posted on The Atlantic could be a good starting point here). It is also even banned in Canadian schools even for discussions, leading Netflix to use trigger warnings for the show.

Full version of the nominees can be seen here.

THE HORSE RACE

Okay, you know what, maybe I should do some 'horse racing' for the Golden Globes. Actually, what I was saying is that I'm doing my own personal prediction challenge, just like I did during last year's Teen Choice and Primetime Emmys. I'm not a good award win guesser out there but I thought that this would be a fun thing to do. The only real challenge would be within the movie categories, while for the TV categories the Emmy wins might be my Decision Support System for this prediction, considering there are in fact Emmy winners who received nominations here, but I keep remind myself that this is a different playing field than the mentioned award.

So, shall we begin? First horse racing in 2018, with my picks marked in bold...

Movies / Motion Picture

• Best Drama - My feeling said it's easy to predict The Shape of Water to win this one. Maybe this would end up in a very La La Land situation but that would depend on how the other categories turn out.
• Best Musical/Comedy - I, Tonya might be a strong name for me but I'd pick the hell out of Get Out.
• Best Director - Guillermo del... Totoro? (The Shape of Water)
• Best Drama Actor - Random choice: Timothée Chalamet. His name pops out more often on my timeline, yet I believe he'll win this one.
• Best Drama Actress - Between Jessica Chastain and Sally Hawkins. Can I beg to differ though? If yes, "The Disdain of Chastain"?
• Best Comedy Actor - Daniel Kaluuya deserves this.
• Best Comedy Actress - Given Margot Robbie's strong performance as applauded by many media, I'm putting my money on her. Not really sure if Emma Stone could win again.
• Best Supporting Actor - By random choice: Armie Hammer.
• Best Supporting Actress - By random choice: Octavia Spencer.
• Best Screenplay - By random choice: The Shape of Water.
• Best Original Song - By random choice: Coco's "The Star".
• Best Original Score - By random choice: Dunkirk.
• Best Animated Feature - Not random choice, I can easily smell Coco's well-deserved victory here.

Comments
Although I don't feel like putting much The Shape of Water to my predictions, my guts said that it might follow La La Land's footsteps of clean sweeping the category. The reason why I would predict both Get Out nominees to win because it deserves better than being classified as Comedy/Musical though it might be part of Jordan Peele's strategy because I know that he would think his movie will get endlessly steamrolled by Guillermo del Toro's.

Television

• Best Drama Series - One of those tough questions considering The Crown seized it last year and it is now going up against the Emmy winner The Handmaid's Tale. I'll go with the Handmaids for this one.
• Best Comedy Series - All-new choices, black-ish and Mrs. Maisel are strong contenders, but for this one I'm siding Mrs. Maisel.
• Best Limited Series or Television Movie - Again we have this FEUD and BLL rivalry, but not sure if this will end up in a lopsided win for the latter considering the Emmys. I know Ryan Murphy still has his magic somewhere considering his The People v. O.J. Simpson work won big last year, but this year can be a different ballgame, so my guts speak: Big Little Lies.
• Best Actor, Drama - Though I'm aware that Freddie Highmore will be a tough competitor here, Sterling K. Brown should take this one home.
• Best Actress, Drama - Elisabeth Moss and Claire Foy? Best match, except it just makes everything tougher. Given Claire already win last year, I sense Elisabeth Moss.
• Best Actor, Comedy - I have no idea, so I might resort to a random selection: Aziz Ansari.
• Best Actress, Comedy - I have a feeling that the favorites for this category are Alison Brie and Rachel Brosnahan, but recently my brain processes the word 'Brosnahan' faster than a Ferrari so... Rachel Brosnahan it is.
• Best Actor, Limited Series - Clearly no idea. I'll go with Ewan McGregor.
• Best Actress, Limited Series - If in last year Sarah Paulson was able to win this category after she won the Emmys a year before, maybe this can happen to Nicole Kidman this year.
• Best Supporting Actress - Emmy winners Laura Dern and Ann Dowd in one category, aargh. I want to go with Ann Dowd but I'm not even sure... Laura Dern.
• Best Supporting Actor - Alexander Skarsgard, although his competition Christian Slater might be as strong.

Comments
Comedy gives all-new names in the mix, with the absence of Atlanta and Donald Glover, not even you'd spot Veep here. I feel like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel could be off for a good start this season. The Handmaid's Tale would easily triumph the Drama categories although I have to say being drawn against The Crown will make the upset more likely; what if it's the latter series that wins the Best Drama? What if Claire Foy won her second (and maybe final considering the second season of the series was in fact her last season) Golden Globes? Finally, you have Big Little Lies which might pretty much win almost every category depending on how the fate rolls around. Not sure if FEUD will be able to steal a win or two from it, but again, only time will tell.

BEYOND THE RACE


This is Jessica Chastain dressed in a black dress in 2013. Within less than a week however, actresses (and actors alike) will be dressed in black to as a form of protest and solidarity against sexual harassment in Hollywood. (Image: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images North America)

While we know that this will be a competition between movies and TV shows battling it out for award wins in this prestigious ground, the 75th Golden Globes won't be your usual run-of-the-mill Golden Globes. Actors and actresses have been fighting against accused sexual abusers since the start of the Weinstein revelation. The gravity of the situation showed that the actors and actresses deserve better than the industry's awful secret: abusive behaviours in the working place. We have seen thousands of stories of actors and actresses coming forward to shut out the abusive people in the power, much to the support of the fans, but just like those final bosses in the video games or those evil masters in comic books, television shows, or movies, these people in the power will do anything to silence these justice bringers down. Alas, there's no other way from them to bring out their resistance: the black dress campaign.

On December 14, Entertainment Weekly reported that many major actresses are expected to dress entirely in black as a form of protest and solidarity against harassment in Hollywood. Many of the nominees, including Jessica Chastain, have been vocal to change the course of Hollywood's current situation, saying that she has been warned in the beginning and, at the same time, is sick of the media demanding only the women to speak up. Meryl Streep also condemned the Weinstein-ism in Hollywood, saying that he has "appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported." She would continue that "the behavior is inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar." The best thing is that it won't be just the women who will do so, but actor Dwayne Johnson and celebrity stylist Ilaria Urbinati also confirm that the men will also wear black to join the solidarity.

This movement, however, isn't without its shortcomings; during Jessica Chastain's tweeting spree, a high-profile male actor e-mailed her to "calm down," and of course she wasn't even having it, saying that she made it clear she will not be bullied into silence and will speak her mind about any injustice she sees. What would surprise me however was Rose McGowan's opposing behavior, which she called out Meryl Streep, of all people, in a tweet that said her silence is the problem, despising her "hypocrisy". I made it clear that she has taken herself too far while I know she has been in a way worse situation under Weinstein, and instead of gaining support she sadly made more troubles with other celebrities, namely Alyssa Milano (her Charmed co-star) and Amber Tamblyn. Amber herself created a thread on Twitter and I fully support what she said and I wanted Rose to calm down a bit, which was what Amber exactly did: spoke to her by phone over an hour, as revealed in her reply on Asia Argento's tweet. As for Meryl Streep herself she released a statement saying that prior to the revelation she didn't know about Weinstein's crimes, wasn't deliberately silent, and made an effort to phone her the second she tweeted the "untrue" broadcast, saying that she hoped to express both her deep respect for her and others’ bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and her sympathy for the untold, ongoing pain she is suffering. The heart-bleeding fact of all this is that Holly Marie Combs siding with Rose against Amber has made it worse, combined with the fact that a Rightwing artist put up Meryl Streep 'She Knew' posters.

Alas, the upcoming Golden Globes will be home to two different battles: the award wins battle, and the battle against the sexual abusers that will go on even beyond the Golden Globes. This Awards Season will be the testament of whether we will have a new era of the Hollywood business or not, with the actors and actresses combining their powers to fight, but be reminded that not everyone might be into this. What will the fate bring for the awards night? Only time will tell...

The 75th annual Golden Globe Awards will be held on Sunday, January 7, starting at 5pm PT/8pm ET and will be televised on NBC. Make sure you don't miss it!

~[R]