The nominations for the 74th-annual Golden Globe Awards were recently announced in mid-December, which means the road to the Oscars is officially in full swing for us cinephiles. But before we start talking about the Academy Awards as early as now, the Golden Globes – airing this Sunday night on NBC (8:00 PM ET) – should first paint a better picture of how all the contenders will shape up for their respective bids to win the coveted golden statuette in February.
We at TopBet have got you covered if you’re in search of some betting action on the second-most prestigious award in the movie industry. Check out our odds and analysis for the four main motion picture categories below, and stay tuned for our coverage on the 89th Academy Awards coming real soon!
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2017 Golden Globe Awards Odds and List of Nominees
Best Motion Picture – Drama
Nominees (Odds):
Manchester By The Sea (-140)
Moonlight (+120)
Hacksaw Ridge (+700)
Lion (+1,200)
Hell or High Water (+1,400)
Looking at the odds above, Manchester By The Sea appears primed to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture – Drama on Sunday. It’s got a stunning performance from its lead actor (more on that later), and the theme of a middle-class family going through trying times is as safe as it is appealing to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s eyes.
However, director Barry Jenkins’ film-fest breakthrough Moonlight deserves every bit of this award just the same. While both this film and Manchester By The Sea were no commercial successes by any measure, the former garnered more critical acclaim than the latter. Moonlight earned 16 top-place finishes amongst the critics’ year-end lists compared to Manchester‘s four as per Metacritic, and it also fared slightly better than the oddsmakers’ chosen front-runner with an IMDb score of 8.7 versus 8.5 along with a near-perfect 98 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Writer’s Prediction: Moonlight
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Nominees (Odds):
La La Land (-5,000)
20th Century Women (+1,000)
Deadpool (+1,400)
Sing Street (+2,000)
Florence Foster Jenkins (+2,000)
As much as we’d personally love to have Marvel Studios’ darkest and also kookiest film to date in Deadpool win this category, the force within La La Land is just too much to handle even for a wisecracking, self-regenerating superhero.
La La Land, a dazzling musical on a Tinseltown love story between a jazz musician and an aspiring actress, certainly has the premise and tone that the HFPA goes gaga over. Not only that, but this film also led all other Golden Globe entrants with seven nominations and is second only to Moonlight in total number of minor domestic and international film awards won in 2016.
Dreams of surefire bets rarely come around, but La La Land will all but guarantee you a winning wager this week, turning this delightful fantasy into your very own money-making reality.
Writer’s Prediction: La La Land
Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominees (Odds):
Casey Affleck – Manchester By the Sea (-400)
Denzel Washington – Fences (+250)
Joel Edgerton – Loving (+1,000)
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge (+1,000)
Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic (+1,800)
This category is virtually a two-man race between an often-overlooked thespian and an already-established Hollywood great in Casey Affleck and Denzel Washington, respectively.
Washington’s performance as a hardworking African-American father during the 1950s in Fences is nothing to scoff at, especially considering the racial turmoil going on in the United States as we speak. Then again, the 62-year-old acting legend has already received many individual accolades from years past – he even just won the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Globes last year – and the HFPA may be more inclined to give this award to another worthy candidate instead.
By no means does that sentiment demean Affleck’s performance and chances of winning the Golden Globe, though. Affleck, in the role of a separated uncle tasked to look after his nephew after the boy’s father passed away, is about as far away from his real-life, rather troubled persona here and delivers an exhilarating emotional ride with great helpings of heartbreak and flashes of wit.
Long has Affleck been in the shadows of his older brother, Ben, and he’s more than paid his dues as well from his previous sexual harassment cases by delivering one of the most impassioned solo performances of the decade.
Writer’s Prediction: Casey Affleck
Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Nominees (Odds):
Natalie Portman – Jackie (-500)
Isabell Huppert – Elle (+500)
Amy Adams – Arrival (+750)
Ruth Negga – Loving (+1,000)
Jessica Chastain – Miss Sloane (+1,200)
Many would argue that since Emma Stone (La La Land) is on the musical/comedy side of things, Natalie Portman’s captivating portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the titular Jackie will run away with the award.
But with the fiscal success ($145 million in box-office sales worldwide) and relatively better reviews of Arrival, Amy Adams could very well claim her throne at the Globes once more. Adams has a whopping seven Golden Globe nominations over the past nine years, yet she has never won the Best Actress Award for Drama.
In a cinematic landscape filled with half-baked sci-fi concepts, Arrival stands out as one of the most refreshing entries of the genre in recent memory. The film is made all the more engrossing with Adams’ unparalleled facial expressions and command of the screen as a linguistics professor trying to decode an alien language in hopes of understanding what these extraterrestrials’ purpose on Earth is.
The Golden Globes are known to provide some shocking results, and Adams is shaping up to be that surprise indeed despite the ironic familiarity of her holding another Golden Globe statuette before the night is done.
Writer’s Prediction: Amy Adams
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