A year after controversy derailed the 79th Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC is giving the Hollywood Foreign Press Association another chance, with the 80th Golden Globes airing live tonight at 8 p.m. ET and streaming on Peacock.
Given the nominees this year, we don’t envy HFPA voters — but here are the movies, shows, and stars we think will take home trophies.
Best Picture, Drama: “Avatar: The Way of Water”
King of the world all over again? James Cameron’s sequel to the 2009 epic Avatar marked another technological leap for filmmaking and gave moviegoers a reason to go back to the multiplex.
Best Picture, Musical/Comedy: “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Filmmaker Martin McDonagh recruited his”In Bruges” stars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell for a simple tale of the demise of a friendship.
Best Actress, Motion Picture — Drama: Cate Blanchett, “Tár”
Playing a conductor on the verge of ruin, Blanchett presents us with a magnum opus of emotion and keeps viewers in her thrall — including, surely, HFPA voters.
Best Actor, Motion Picture — Drama: Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
The Brenaissance is here, with Fraser making a triumphant comeback — and showing impressive range for an ex-action star — as a reclusive English teacher trying to connect to his teenage daughter.
Best Actress, Motion Picture — Musical/Comedy: Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
There are parallel universes in which Yeoh won’t win for her role as a laundromat owner saving the multiverse while contending with an IRS audit… but we hope this universe sees the actress get her long-overdue trophy.
Best Actor, Motion Picture — Musical/Comedy: Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
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Farrell won a Globe for his first collaboration with director Martin McDonagh. We expect a repeat for his performance as an Irish fellow who’s suddenly too “dull” (and too Mozart-unaware) for his longtime drinking buddy.
Best Drama Series: “Severance”
No nominee in this competitive category is as imaginative as this Apple TV+ series about work-life balance taken to an extreme, as workplace drones try to understand their “severed” out-of-office alter egos.
Best Musical/Comedy Series: “Abbott Elementary”
Workplace comedies don’t get much better than this ABC mockumentary about idealistic teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia school, thanks to the comedic talents of creator Quinta Brunson and her costars.
Best Television Actress, Drama Series: Emma D’Arcy, “House of the Dragon”
If there’s not an award for Best Meme, we can at least settle for D’Arcy taking gold for their role as a princess desperate to keep her family on the Iron Throne at overwhelming personal cost.
Best Television Actor, Drama Series: Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”
The HFPA has one more chance to give Odenkirk his due for playing a lawyer scraping the bottom of the barrel as he aims for the top of his field.
Best Television Actress, Musical/Comedy Series: Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”
Not to be a teacher’s pet, but Brunson does the exasperated-glance-toward-the-camera even better than Jim from “The Office” as she plays an educator suffering indignity after indignity.
Best Television Actor, Musical/Comedy Series: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”
No TV show makes us want to be a chef less than “The Bear,” which is a credit to White, whose harried performance as Carmy Berzatto puts us in the pressure cooker of a restaurant kitchen.