NEW YORK (AP) – Dramatic period pieces will vie for the top comedy-musical awards and song-stuffed movies are poised to dominate the dramatic categories. Welcome to the 71st annual Golden Globes.
Category confusion often reigns at the Globes. Remember when laughers like “The Martian” and “Get Out” competed as comedies? But the Globes, reliably the frothiest, quirkiest and most entertaining stop in the awards-season march to the Academy Awards, might feel especially upside down this year.
The night, to be broadcast live Sunday on NBC, may ultimately belong to Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” revival. It’s the favorite for best picture (drama), best actress (Lady Gaga), best song (“Shallow”) and best actor (Bradley Cooper). The film’s stiffest competition may come from another music movie: the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” whose star, Rami Malek, some believe could pull off the acting upset over Cooper.
Despite their copious tuneage, the campaigns of both “A Star Is Born” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” elected for the more serious dramatic category. For “A Star Is Born,” it’s a kind of power move to firmly establish itself as the Oscar front runner many believe it is.
Oscar voting, as it turns out this year, commences Monday, the morning after the Golden Globes. If “A Star Is Born” runs away with the Globes, it will enter the nominations period of the Academy Awards as the favorite by a wide margin.