Wicked or Avatar? Hollywood gears up for Golden Globe nominations

Hamnet, Sinners, Marty Supreme and Wicked: For Good are a few of the films expected to be up for Golden Globe awards when the nominations are announced later.

The Globes are the first major Hollywood honours to reveal their shortlists, effectively kicking off a film awards season that will last until the Oscars in March.

Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessie Buckley are some of the big names who could be in contention in the acting categories.

The nominations will be announced by actors Marlon Wayans and Skye P Marshall from 13:15 GMT on Monday.

As well as recognising film and television, a new category for best podcast has been introduced this year.

US comic Nikki Glaser will return to host this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, which will take place in Los Angeles on 11 January.

We’ll start with the blockbusters. Wicked: For Good, which concludes the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West, is likely to show up in several categories. The first Wicked film won the box office achievement prize at last year’s Globes.

Avatar: Fire and Ash, which sees the Na’vi encounter an aggressive new tribe, is also likely to be nominated ahead of its expected domination of the box office this Christmas.

Other possible nominees include One Battle After Another, about the kidnap of a former revolutionary’s daughter; Sinners, a 1930s-set vampire drama; and Hamnet, the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about the death of William Shakespeare’s son.

There are three sports biopics in the running this year: Marty Supreme, about a table-tennis player’s pursuit of greatness; Christy, which follows boxer Christy Martin; and The Smashing Machine, about UFC fighter Mark Kerr.

They face competition from conspiracy theory drama Bugonia, a new screen adaptation of Frankenstein, Hollywood satire Jay Kelly and music biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

Sexual assault drama After The Hunt, Lorenz Hart biopic Blue Moon, missile thriller A House of Dynamite, loneliness study Train Dreams, musical love story Song Sung Blue and the John Bishop-inspired Is This Thing On? are also competing.

And several films eligible for the non-English language prize, such as The Secret Agent, No Other Choice, Sentimental Value, The Voice of Hind Rajab, Sirāt and It Was Just an Accident, could easily show up in other categories too.

The Globes have far more acting nomination slots available (36) than the Oscars (20) because they split many of their film categories between drama and musical or comedy.

That allows them to hand out more trophies on the night and means they can pack their ceremony with stars – and there are plenty of A-listers in consideration this year.

Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) could return to the awards race for playing a former revolutionary, while Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) could be nominated for portraying table tennis player Marty Mauser.

Wicked: For Good’s Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande could repeat the nominations they got for the first film, while Sydney Sweeney (Christy) has been praised for her portrayal of boxer Christy Martin’s rise to fame in the 1990s and her husband’s later attempt to murder her.

Dwayne Johnson could be recognised for MMA drama The Smashing Machine, marking the blockbuster star’s first significant awards play, while George Clooney and Adam Sandler are in the running for Jay Kelly, about an ageing Hollywood actor grappling with his life choices.

Irish actress Jessie Buckley is a best actress frontrunner for her role in Hamnet, a film Paul Mescal could also be recognised for, while Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons could return to the awards race for Bugonia.

Other stars in contention include Julia Roberts (After The Hunt), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B Jordan (Sinners), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere).

Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent), and Chase Infiniti and Sean Penn (both One Battle After Another) are also likely to be recognised.

The film categories might dominate the headlines, but unlike many of the other events of awards season, the Golden Globes recognise television as well.

This year, all eyes will be on the limited series category to see whether British drama Adolescence will dominate in the same way it did at September’s Emmy Awards.

Stephan Graham and Owen Cooper starred in Jack Thorne’s drama about a teenage boy who is accused of stabbing a female classmate, which was one of the most talked-about shows of the year.

Elsewhere, The Pitt, Severance, Slow Horses and The White Lotus could compete the drama categories, while The Studio, Hacks, Nobody Wants This and Abbott Elementary are some of the comedy frontrunners.

Affectionately referred to as the “drunk uncle” of awards season, the Globes are a laid-back affair, with the celebrities usually in a good mood after their Christmas break.

A less formal ceremony than the Oscars, the Globes usually see stars have more fun with their acceptance speeches and mingle over a few drinks and a meal.

But make no mistake, the Globes are key stop on the Oscars trail – the winners have the opportunity to get on the radar of far more Academy voters due to the event being televised on a major US broadcast network.

Last year’s Golden Globe wins gave a significant boost of momentum to actors such as Fernanda Torres and Sebastian Stan, and films including I’m Still Here and Flow, which both went on to win Oscars.

Another thing the Globes are famous for is roasting celebrities – the opening monologues from previous hosts such as Ricky Gervais, Seth Meyers and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have often provided some of the most viral moments of the night.

The Globes faced criticism after a 2021 corruption scandal and struggled to book good hosts for a few years, but got back on a firmer footing last year, with US comic Nikki Glaser delivering a barnstorming monologue.

She poked fun at stars including Zendaya, Ben Affleck, Selena Gomez, Eddie Redmayne and Glen Powell, and later delivered a musical mash-up of Wicked and Conclave called Pope-ular. She was promptly booked to return as host in 2026.