Predicting The 2012 Golden Globe Awards

Raja Sen talks about the strongest contenders for Golden Globe awards this year.

I don't think much of the Golden Globes, that annual Hollywoodpleaser that gives two times the awards in order to bring in more star-power after dividing films arbitrarily into 'Drama' and Comedy/Musical' categories.

Having said that, it is the year's first majorly televised awards show, and Ricky Gervais is hosting it again, and I will be waking up at Dawn to watch it before inevitably grumbling about the glaring oversights.

Here, then, is what I think will happen in the major categories:

Best Motion Picture - Drama

The nominees are: The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, The Ides Of March, Moneyball, War Horse

Likely winner: Moneyball, because it's a wonderful true-life sports drama told very well, and more because Hugo would have stood better chance in the Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical) category.

The nominees are: Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs); Viola Davis (The Help), Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady); Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin).

Likely winner: Any other year this would have been Mara's prize, but the ever-astounding Streep playing Margaret Thatcher is such an awards show shoo-in that it doesn't matter who else is nominated.

The nominees are: George Clooney (The Descendants); Leonardo DiCaprio (J Edgar); Michael Fassbender (Shame); Ryan Gosling (The Ides Of March); Brad Pitt (Moneyball).

Likely winner: Fassbender delivers a stunning performance in Shame but may well be edged out by Clooney, who is receiving raves for his work in Alexander Payne's latest.

The Hollywood Foreign Press loves George, and may hand him a globe to make up for shafting his directorial project The Ides Of March, which is unlikely to win anything.

As for Brad, he has a much better chance at the Oscars than at the Globes.

The nominees are: 50/50, The Artist, Bridesmaids, Midnight In Paris, My Week With Marilyn

Likely winner: The peculiarly beautiful cancer-comedy 50/50 deserves all the applause it gets, but this award rightfully belongs to Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris, a sumptuous and beautifully dreamy tale told by a master with much elegance.

The nominees are: Jodie Foster (Carnage); Charlize Theron (Young Adult), Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids); Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn); Kate Winslet (Carnage)

Likely winner: Charlize Theron's performance in Jason Reitman's film is being hailed as the best of her career, even though Williams is the clear frontrunner here for playing a screen goddess.

The only thing these nominations indicate, however, is that we should all watch Carnage.

The nominees are: Jean Dujardin (The Artist); Brendan Gleeson (The Guard), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (50/50); Ryan Gosling (Crazy Stupid Love); Owen Wilson (Midnight In Paris)

Likely winners: Gosling and Wilson, while fine actors, don't deserve awards for efficient but unspectacular performances, and while Gordon-Levitt is exceptionally good in 50/50 -- and my favourite for this prize -- it just might fall to Dujardin, to honour the best-reviewed film in Europe this year.

The nominees are: The Adventures Of Tintin, Arthur Christmas, Cars 2, Puss In Boots, Rango.

Likely winner: Rango, Rango, Rango. If this award goes elsewhere, we should just turn off the Globes -- Ricky Gervais notwithstanding.

The nominees are: Woody Allen (Midnight In Paris); George Clooney (The Ides Of March); Michel Hazanavicus (The Artist); Alexander Payne (The Descendants); Martin Scorsese (Hugo).

Likely winner: Now this one's a pretty hard category to call, with Allen in sparkling form, Clooney a jury favourite, Hazanavicus earning much critical love, and Payne making one of his best films.

I think it'll go to Scorsese, though, for making a film that is drawing not just awestruck applause but is doing so while being an optimistic 3D crowdpleaser.