BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild
As I said before, we’d be seeing Julianne Moore’s name appear again, and here she is. She has been winning major accolades for her incredible performance as a woman dealing with Alzheimer’s in Still Alice, making her the easy pick of the lot. It’s true that Pike has been giving her a run for her money throughout the critics awards, but it’d be very shocking to see them award it to anyone but Moore.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo – Selma
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
With Michael Keaton off in the comedy category, we actually have a wide-open race here. There is so much talent here that it makes it nearly impossible to pick who will come out on top, especially with four out of five nominees playing real-life people. However, in the interest of picking a winner, I believe this will go to Eddie Redmayne for his brilliant portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, if for no other reason than that it seems as though this would have been the hardest role to get right. Playing Hawking before and after his diagnosis, Redmayne delivers a touching and memorable performance that would seem to be the one that the HFPA would go for. That being said, look for potential spoilers from… well, from the other four nominees.
BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
I would love to say that Inarritu is going to win this for his brilliant direction in Birdman, but the critics have spoken. Well, actually, more like they’ve shouted in nearly-unanimous praise for Richard Linklater’s direction in Boyhood. Having taken a whopping 21 directing awards (three times that of his closest competitor, Inarritu), this is definitely his to lose. That being said, the HFPA doesn’t always go with the flow. In the past few years alone, we’ve seen them award Martin Scorsese for Hugo, Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and even James Cameron for Avatar (it’s hard to believe, but it really did happen). All that’s to say that it’s not outside the realm of possibility that we could be seeing someone besides Linklater take the category.
Personally, I don’t see why critics have chosen to shower him with directing awards. Having seen the film twice, I’ve concluded that the direction is fine, but it’s nothing particularly impressive, certainly not as good as Inarritu or Anderson. It would appear as though most are just attaching this award to their Best Picture choice as they believe that one must go with the other, but obviously this is not always the case. Linklater wouldn’t be the worst choice by any means, but it would be somewhat annoying if some of these other directors get overlooked in favor of him.
BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
St. Vincent
Pride
Once again, with Birdman sidled over to the comedy category, we find that it doesn’t have much competition, though I wouldn’t count The Grand Budapest Hotel out entirely as it’s started to emerge as a stronger contender than some originally thought. However, Birdman has been far and away the more popular of the two, so at this point, if anything else were to win, it would be a complete shock.
BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood has been the critics’ darling right from the very beginning, having taken 18 Best Picture awards up to this point. Again, this is about three times that of its closest competitor, Birdman, which, as previously mentioned, is off in another category. As far as the other nominees in this category go, Selma has two BP wins while the others have zero. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait for the PGA awards to see the titans go head-to-head, where it will be determined if those in the industry agree with the critics’ “chosen one.” For now, the two will just have to settle for winning in their respective categories.
The 72nd Annual Golden Globes will air Sunday night at 8 pm on NBC. Be sure to join us for a live list of the winners as they’re announced.
