Golden Globes 2017: who can win and what to expect from first-time host Jimmy Fallon

The awards season shifts into high gear tonight as Tinseltown’s finest gather to find out the winners and losers at the 74th Annual Golden Globes – and everybody and their stretch-limo driver has an opinion about who deserves a statuette.

Only 93 opinions matter, however: those of the voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who present their glittering bash from Los Angeles – broadcast live tomorrow from 5am on Dubai One – to honour excellence in film and television. Here are our predictions for the main categories:

Motion Picture – Drama

• Nominees: Hacksaw Ridge; Hell or High Water; Lion; Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight.

• Who should win? Crime drama Hell or High Water proved Chris Pine can do so much more than pilot a starship – hold his own against Jeff Bridges for a start – and Hacksaw Ridge is a war-movie masterpiece. But all the buzz is around Moonlight, a drama about African-Americans coming of age in Miami.

Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

• Nominees: 20th Century ­Women; Deadpool; La La Land; Florence Foster Jenkins and Sing Street.

• Who should win? How do you make sense of a category that pits superhero "merc with the mouth" Deadpool against a LA song-and-dance ­extravaganza La La Land? Since Meryl Streep doesn't need any more hardware, and La La Land is likely to get lots of love elsewhere, let's give Ryan Reynolds his due for success in putting a fresh spin on th e increasingly tired X-Men ­franchise.

Actress/Motion Picture – Drama

• Nominees: Amy Adams (­Arrival); Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane); Isabelle Huppert (Elle); Ruth Negga (Loving); and Natalie Portman (Jackie).

• Who should win? This is a three-way battle between ­Adams, as a linguist to the heptapod ETs, Portman, as ­Jackie Kennedy, and Huppert, as a video-game executive on an ­intensely personal mission. Portman should win.

Actress / Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

• Nominees: Annette Bening (20th Century Women); Lily ­Collins (Rules Don't Apply); ­Hailee Steinfeld (The Edge of Seventeen); Emma Stone (La La Land); and Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins).

• Who should win? Collins scores big as a small-town beauty queen under contract to Howard Hughes in old-time Hollywood, as does Stone as an aspiring modern-day actress – but Bening outclasses them as a resolute single mother.

Actor / Motion Picture – Drama

• Nominees: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea); Joel ­Edgerton (Loving); Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge); Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic); Denzel Washington (Fences).

• Who should win? With all due respect to Affleck, as a brooding loner, and Garfield, as a real-life battlefield medic, Washington looks like a shoo-in as a man who lost his baseball dream.

Actor / Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

• Nominees: Colin Farrell (The Lobster); Ryan Gosling (La La Land); Hugh Grant (Florence Foster Jenkins); Jonah Hill (War Dogs); Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool).

• Who should win? We know Farrell nails it as a guy given 45 days to find true love, and Gosling tickles the ivories so sweetly – but again, we are going to go for Reynolds as our favourite ­wisecracking mutant.

TV Series – Drama

• Nominees: The Crown; Game of Thrones; Stranger Things; This Is Us; Westworld.

• Who Should Win? Westworld was obtuse in its execution, and those poor, abused robots cannot hold a candle to the beloved ensemble cast of Game of Thrones – but Stranger Things will win for its captivating, nostalgic blend of 1980s childhood adventure and monster movies.

TV Series – Musical or Comedy

• Nominees: Atlanta; Black-ish; Mozart in the Jungle; ­Transparent and Veep.

• Who should win? Transparent and Veep are yesterday's news, and last year's Mozart win was a fluke. This year, there is ­nothing as fresh as Atlanta, a comedy about rappers.

Actress / TV Series – Drama

• Nominees: Caitriona Balfe (Outlander); Claire Foy (The Crown); Keri Russell (The Americans); Winona Ryder (Stranger Things); and Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld).

• Who should win? Wood and Russell gave Globe-worthy ­performances, but Ryder, as a mother losing her mind while trying to locate her missing son, steals their thunder.

Actress / TV Series – Musical or Comedy

• Nominees: Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend); Julia Louis-­Dreyfus (Veep); Sarah Jessica Parker (Divorce); Issa Rae (Insecure); Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin); Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish).

• Who should win? While ­Louis-Dreyfus has been flawlessly funny in Veep for years, and the latest season was arguably the best to date, the sentimental gravity is pulling hard for Sex and the City star Parker. She will probably win, despite lukewarm reviews for the show.

Actor / TV Series – Drama

• Nominees: Rami Malek (Mr Robot); Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul); Matthew Rhys (The Americans); Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan); and Billy Bob Thornton (Goliath).

• Who should win? Odenkirk got his first Golden Globe nomination last year. This should be his year to seal the deal – if he can dent the appeal of last year’s Emmy winner, Malek.

Actor / TV Series – Musical or Comedy

• Nominees: Anthony ­Anderson (Black-ish); Gael García ­Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle); Donald Glover (Atlanta); Nick ­Nolte (Graves); and Jeffrey Tambor (­Transparent).

• Who Should Win? Nick Nolte ... there’s a name you don’t hear often these days. You won’t hear it when the envelope is opened, either, as Atlanta creator Glover – actor, writer, producer, director, comedian, rapper, singer, and songwriter – will grab the bling.

The snub

There’s nothing like a public slap to the ego to snap an A-lister back to reality. The stars and shows getting the surprise silent treatment this year include:

‘Forrest’ bumped

Tom Hanks landed a jet on water with his portrayal of “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot Chesley Sullenberger in Clint Eastwood’s drama, Sully, but couldn’t land a nomination, despite eight previous Golden Globe nods.

Deafening Silence

With the swing of a samurai sword, the Globes delivered the unkindest cut of all to director Martin Scorsese, who spent decades on his passion project, Silence, about Jesuit priests in 17th century Japan, where Christianity is outlawed.

Something fishy

Finding Dory was the biggest animated movie of the year at the box office, earning more than US$1.02 billion (Dh3.7bn), but it floundered with Globes voters, who instead found room for My Life as a Zucchini, a low-profile French-Swiss film.

Gone Girls

We loved the return of our favourite ladies in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, but not even star Lauren Graham could fast-talk her way into a nomination for her touching performance.

Robot malfunction

Winning the prize for best drama last year wasn’t enough to earn Mr Robot the chance of a repeat this year. Does ... not ... compute. At least star Rami Malek was honoured for his performance with an acting nomination.

� artslife@thenational.ae