By: Chad W. Shreeves

Awards season is now in full swing. While we’ve seen critics associations and smaller bodies grant their awards already, many in the industry regard the Golden Globes as the official kickoff to the season leading up to the Oscars in March.

While we won’t be analyzing all of the winners, as the Globes have often been regarded as increasingly irrelevant, there are a few key hints we can use to gleam the future of the season from.

For those interested, you can find all of last night’s winners here.

Oppenheimer Will Be The Film To Beat

We knew that Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s historical epic about the father of the atomic bomb, was going to be a huge awards juggernaut. But with other big season heavyweights Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers, Poor Things, and The Color Purple all challenging the film, it was a question of how much it was going to break through. To be fair, by Globes standards, all of those other films were competing in the Musical or Comedy category.

The point still remains, all of the critics awards have also been heavily leaning toward Nolan, particularly for Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr). It’s clear at this point Downey has the upper hand and will be carrying momentum into the Oscar nominations.

Christopher Nolan as well looks to be a heavy favorite to finally take home his first Oscar. It’s a new high for the filmmaker, whose fans have often felt was overlooked by awards bodies.

Barbie May Be A Hidden Surprise

There’s been a lot of talk about Barbie being “snubbed” outside of the ridiculous “Box Office Achievement” award and Billie Eilish taking home Original Song, but those two alone could open Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster up to awards gold.

Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” has to be considered a front runner for the Oscar, with the singer also taking home multiple other awards for the song over the past month. This may upset some “I’m Just Ken” purists who believed that was the big front runner, but Eilish may have just taken that lead.

While I’m not expecting Ryan Gosling to upset Downey or Margot Robbie to work her way into the conversation, there’s a good chance the pleasing summer comedy will be one to look at as Oscar nominations begin to be released. There’s a good chance an Adapted Screenplay nomination is also in the cards for the film.

Killers of the Flower Moon is in Trouble

While Oppenheimer is clearly positioning itself in the conversation as one of the favorites, Martin Scorsese’s epic was once considered to be a huge competitor. It was my personal favorite of the year, but my opinion doesn’t matter to awards voters.

Even looking at the awards season scoreboard, Killers of the Flower Moon has failed to gain much traction. With Lily Gladstone being the only winner at the Globes, Killers’ chances are diminished.

I think its best chances right now are Gladstone and maybe a chance at Adapted Screenplay. It just seems destined to be one of those heavily nominated, rarely winning, type of films.

This does not change opinion of the film at all, in a year with great films like Oppenheimer, it’s just going to get lost in the mix.

The Boy and the Heron Has Made Animated Picture Competitive

I adored Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. My personal pick for Best Animated picture was Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse (coming in my number 2 spot on the year overall), but I really really enjoyed the film.

Other pundits agreed with me, with many basically handing the award to Spiderverse already. But as Critics circles and now the Globes have shown, the Best Animated Picture award is now up for grabs.

It’s now a two way race between Spider-Man and The Boy and the Heron. We’re not expecting Pixar’s Elemental or The Super Mario Bros. Movie to become competitive, but there is a narrow window for the big two to split the vote enough for something else to sneak through.

Still, my betting money when it comes to the Academy would be on Spiderverse, but I don’t think anybody should be surprised or upset if Miyazaki goes home with the Oscar in March.

The Acting Categories Are The Most Competitive In Years

While there’s some clear front runners, and I would expect them to win if we’re being honest, it’s clear that there are windows for some major Oscars upsets in the works.

Cillian Murphy gives an incredible performance in Oppenheimer and seems to be running with multiple awards, but he’s competing with some heavy hitters like Paul Giamatti (most likely a close second), Colman Domingo, Jeffrey Wright, Bradley Cooper…and let’s be real, never count out Leonardo DiCaprio in awards chatter.

The same goes for Lily Gladstone (my personal overall best performance of the year). She is a far out front runner, but Emma Stone seems to be gaining momentum, and Natalie Portman, Carrie Mulligan, Greta Lee, and Sandra Huller may all be sneaking into the conversation in the coming weeks.

Robert Downey Jr. is so far ahead right now it’s hard to imagine him getting upset, but Mark Ruffalo (In a personal career best performance) and Willem Dafoe will also be competitive for Poor Things. The Academy does love De Niro, so he may begin to build momentum as well as season wears on.

In the Supporting Actress category, this is probably the least competitive with Da’Vine Joy Randolph being a very clear front runner. But do not underestimate Emily Blunt, especially if the Academy goes with the “body of work” logic for voting. People seem to also be sleeping on Danielle Brooks, who will be gaining momentum as more people see The Color Purple. Other favorites that seem to be sneaking in are Julianne Moore (May December) and Rosamund Pike (Saltburn).

While the Golden Globes this year proved to be rather lackluster, there’s enough that can be gathered from the awards themselves to give excited awards watchers some insight to what voters are thinking of.

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