81st Golden Globe Winner Predictions – Motion Picture: ‘Oppenheimer’ vs ‘Killers’ and ‘Barbie’ vs ‘Poor Things’

Like we saw with the nominations, it’s a bit of a new world for the Golden Globes. With 300 voting members (up from 90 for the last several decades) we got very few ‘bad’ films and performances nominated for the sake of having those stars in the aura of what used to the be the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. None, arguably. To that extent, 60+ voters recently threatened to boycott voting because they weren’t guaranteed a seat in the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s International Ballroom where the awards will take place. Will they follow through and how much would that impact the outcome? Are they old school voters? Presumably so, as the old rules of the now defunct HFPA were that you had to be based in Los Angeles, therefore having access to screenings and events. But unless the Golden Globes reveals the numbers of votes and voters – which they definitely won’t do – it’s probably safer to assume that people will still vote. But it could be the difference between Bradley Cooper over Cillian Murphy or Ryan Gosling over Robert Downey Jr. I’m going with the formers on both, which feel like they could go the either way or a different duo combination amongst these four.

Those are just two of the very contested races at this year’s Golden Globes in the Motion Picture categories, where Barbie leads the nominations with 9, followed very closely by Oppenheimer (8) Poor Things (7) and Killers of the Flower Moon (7). While Oppenheimer feels like it has a comfortable lead on Killers of the Flower Moon in the drama competitions as well as director and score, Barbie and Poor Things go head to head in their respective top categories in comedy that almost feel too close to call. Barbie is inevitably going to win the newly created and ridiculous Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category and that might give way to Poor Things winning Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Stars Margot Robbie and Emma Stone will fiercely battle it out for lead actress there but I’m going to predict a split: Barbie winning the film category and Stone winning actress for Poor Things.

Comedian Jo Koy is set to host the 81^st Annual Golden Globe Awards, which will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Sunday, January 7, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Multi-Emmy Award-winning producing duo Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment (WCE) will serve as executive-producing showrunners for the ceremony, with Weiss also set to direct.

Here are my motion picture winner predictions for the 81st Golden Globe Awards.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

• Predicted winner: Oppenheimer
• Spoiler: Killers of the Flower Moon

Other nominees: Anatomy of a Fall, Maestro, Past Lives, The Zone of Interest

BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

• Predicted winner: Barbie
• Spoiler: Poor Things

Other nominees: Air, American Fiction, The Holdovers, May December

BEST MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED

• Predicted winner: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• Spoiler: The Boy and the Heron

Other nominees: Elemental, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Suzume, Wish

BEST MOTION PICTURE – NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• Predicted winner: Anatomy of a Fall (France)
• Spoiler: Past Lives (United States)

Other nominees: Fallen Leaves (Finland), Io Capitano (Italy), Society of the Snow (Spain), The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

• Predicted winner: Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
• Spoiler: Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall

Other nominees: Annette Bening – Nyad, Greta Lee – Past Lives, Carey Mulligan – Maestro, Cailee Spaeny – Priscilla

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

• Predicted winner: Bradley Cooper – Maestro
• Spoiler: Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer

Other nominees: Leonardo DiCaprio – Killers of the Flower Moon, Colman Domingo – Rustin, Barry Keoghan – Saltburn, Andrew Scott – All of Us Strangers

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

• Predicted winner: Emma Stone – Poor Things
• Spoiler: Margot Robbie – Barbie

Other nominees: Fantasia Barrino – The Color Purple, Jennifer Lawrence – No Hard Feelings, Natalie Portman – May December, Alma Pöysti – Fallen Leaves

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

• Predicted winner: Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
• Spoiler: Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

Other nominees: Nicolas Cage – Dream Scenario, Timothée Chalamet – Wonka, Matt Damon – Air, Joaquin Phoenix – Beau Is Afraid

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE

• Predicted winner: Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
• Spoiler: Rosamund Pike – Saltburn

Other nominees: Emily Blunt – Oppenheimer, Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple, Jodie Foster – Nyad, Julianne Moore – May December

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE

• Predicted winner: Ryan Gosling – Barbie
• Spoiler: Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer

Other nominees: Willem Dafoe – Poor Things, Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon, Charles Melton – May December, Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE

• Predicted winner: Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
• Spoiler: Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon

Other nominees: Bradley Cooper – Maestro, Greta Gerwig – Barbie, Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things, Celine Song – Past Lives

BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE

• Predicted winner: Barbie
• Spoiler: Anatomy of a Fall

Other nominees: Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE

• Predicted winner: Oppenheimer
• Spoiler: Killers of the Flower Moon

Other nominees: The Boy and the Heron, Poor Things, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Zone of Interest

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE

• Predicted winner: “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie
• Spoiler: “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie

Other nominees: “Addicted to Romance” from She Came to Me, “Dance the Night” from Barbie, “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, “Road to Freedom” from Rustin

CINEMATIC AND BOX OFFICE ACHIEVEMENT

• Predicted winner: Barbie
• Spoiler: Oppenheimer

Other nominees: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, John Wick: Chapter 4, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.

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