2026 Golden Globe Nomination Predictions (Motion Picture): Can ‘One Battle After Another’ Tie ‘Barbie’ and ‘Cabaret’ as the Third-Most Nominated Movie Ever?
It’s been a wild first week of awards season, which began on Monday with the Gotham Awards, who voted One Battle After Another as Best Feature, then the New York Film Critics Circle did the same the next day. National Board of Review jumped on the bandwagon the day after that. The Spirit Awards, with their $30m budget ceiling, kept that nomination from happening but it’s where Train Dreams continued its great run so far, one that ran into the Critics Choice nominations on Friday, which were led by Sinners and One Battle but where the little film that could found itself as the only film so far to hit Gotham, NBR and AFI’s top 10s, Spirit Awards and Critics Choice.
But is it enough for the Golden Globes? NBR, AFI and even Critics Choice now have rules about non-English language films and category placements where the Globes now do not. So there’s a very good chance that in the top film categories there we’ll see one, two, or possibly three take up spots. That’s where Cannes winners It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value can shine in a group of 300+ non-American voters.
I expect those three plus Frankenstein, Hamnet and Sinners to make up the Best Drama category while over in Musical or Comedy we can definitely expect leading contenders One Battle and Marty Supreme along with what is a slightly more open race that includes Blue Moon, Bugonia, Jay Kelly, No Other Choice, Rental Family, The Testament of Ann Lee, Song Sung Blue, Wake Up Dead Man and Wicked: For Good.
Can One Battle tie Barbie and Cabaret for the third-most nominations ever? It certainly seems possible for OBAA to hit nine, that is practically the floor for the film and that doesn’t include the possibility of the newer Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category, which One Battle doesn’t qualify for but got Barbie its ninth. Similarly, Cabaret also had a ‘New Star of the Year’ award at the time (which Marisa Berenson was nominated for) that’s long since been continued. If voters really go for it, Regina Hall could make it 10, tying it with Emilia Pérez last year. I’m currently predicting it for seven nominations but Sinners could squeak in there too if voters go for both Miles Caton and Wunmi Mosaku.
Helen Mirren, who is a contender for the Kate Winslet-directed Goodbye June, will be the 70th recipient of the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award, in recognition for her decades of work on screen and in television. Mirren has been nominated for 17 Golden Globes, winning three times, first as Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie for Losing Chase (1995) and then becoming a double winner for her work in 2005, in the film The Queen and as Best Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie for Elizabeth I. A new primetime special, Golden Eve, will debut on CBS Thursday, January 8, 2026 where Mirren will be presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
Marlon Wayans and Skye P. Marshall will announce nominees for the 83rd Annual Golden Globes Monday, December 8, 2025. All 28 categories will be unveiled at 8:15 a.m. ET/5:15 a.m. PT on CBSNews.com, with 11 exclusive categories revealed at 8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT only on CBS Mornings.
The ceremony will take place on Sunday, January 11, live on CBS and Paramount+.
Best Motion Picture (Drama)
Frankenstein
Hamnet
It Was Just An Accident
Sentimental Value
Sinners
The Secret Agent
Alt: Avatar: Fire and Ash; Train Dreams
Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Bugonia
Jay Kelly
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Wicked: For Good
Alt: Rental Family, Wake Up Dead Man
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams
Oscar Isaac, Frankenstein
Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
Alt: Will Arnett, Is This Thing On?; Russell Crowe, Nuremberg
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
George Clooney, Jay Kelly
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Lee Byung-hun, No Other Choice
Jesse Plemons, Bugonia
Alt: Brendan Fraser, The Rental Family; Liam Neeson, The Naked Gun
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Jennifer Lawrence, Die My Love
Helen Mirren, Goodbye June
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Julia Roberts, After the Hunt
Tessa Thompson, Hedda
Alt: Jodie Foster, A Private Life; Sydney Sweeney, Christy
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked: For Good
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone, Bugonia
Alt: Pamela Anderson, The Naked Gun; Dakota Johnson, Materialists
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Paul Mescal, Hamnet
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Adam Sandler, Jay Kelly
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Benecio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Alt: Miles Caton, Sinners; Josh O’Connor, Wake Up Dead Man
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande, Wicked: For Good
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Gwyneth Paltrow, Marty Supreme
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Alt: Odessa A’Zion, Marty Supreme; Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners; Gwyneth Paltrow, Marty Supreme
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just An Accident
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Alt: Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent; Oliver Laxe, Sirāt
Best Screenplay
Hamnet
It Was Just An Accident
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Alt: Bugonia, No Other Choice
Best Animated Feature Film
Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Ne Zha 2
Zootopia 2
Alt: In Your Dreams, Scarlet
Best Foreign Language Film
It Was Just An Accident
No Other Choice
Sentimental Value
Sirāt
The Secret Agent
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Alt: Nouvelle Vague, Sound of Falling
Best Original Score
Hamnet
Jay Kelly
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams
Alt: F1: The Movie, Frankenstein
Best Original Song
“Clothed By The Sun”, the Testament of Ann Lee
“Dream as One,” Avatar: Fire and Ash
“Drive,” F1: The Movie
“Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters
“I Lied To You,” Sinners
“The Girl In The Bubble,” Wicked: For Good
Alt: “Train Dreams,” Train Dreams, “Zoo,” Zootopia 2
Cinematic and Box Office Achievement
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1: The Movie
Sinners
Superman
Wicked: For Good
Zootopia 2
Alts: A Minecraft Movie, Weapons
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2026 Golden Globe Nomination Predictions (Motion Picture): Can ‘One Battle After Another’ Tie ‘Barbie’ and ‘Cabaret’ as the Third-Most Nominated Movie Ever? - December 6, 2025
- Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS) Nominations: ‘Sinners’ Leads with Record-Tying 14 - December 5, 2025
- AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 318 – The First Week of Awards Season with Critics Choice, Spirit Awards Nominations; NYFF, NBR, Gotham Winners - December 5, 2025
2026 Golden Globe Nomination Predictions (Motion Picture): Can ‘One Battle After Another’ Tie ‘Barbie’ and ‘Cabaret’ as the Third-Most Nominated Movie Ever? 
2026 Golden Globe Nomination Predictions – Television: Expect Emmy Favorites ‘The Pitt,’ ‘The Studio’ Plus New Fare ‘Pluribus’ and More 
Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS) Nominations: ‘Sinners’ Leads with Record-Tying 14 
AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 318 – The First Week of Awards Season with Critics Choice, Spirit Awards Nominations; NYFF, NBR, Gotham Winners