It’s awards season and we here at Full Circle Cinema have a bevy of differing opinions regarding who or what deserves to win big at this year’s ceremonies. With Full Circle Forecast, we will be breaking down the nominees for the biggest categories and giving predictions for who we think will be taking the coveted statuettes home at the grandest stages of them all. 2020 will start off with the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which celebrates the best in both film and television. Here are our picks in the biggest categories of the evening.

Best Motion Picture – Drama

• 1917
• The Irishman
• Joker
• Marriage Story
• The Two Popes

Prediction: Marriage Story

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johannson are, perhaps, best known for their roles in the Star Wars and Marvel cinematic universes. However, their work in Netflix’s Marriage Story was absolutely breathtaking and spellbinding. It is a relationship deteriorating on-screen, in an emotional and well-written way, between two broken and complicated individuals. Noah Baumbach will likely be highly honored, deservedly so, at this year’s ceremony for putting together such a compelling whirlwind of emotion. And this is coming from someone who thought Joker was the film of the year.

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

• Dolemite Is My Name
• Jojo Rabbit
• Knives Out
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• Rocketman

Prediction: Dolemite Is My Name

Yes. I am painfully aware that Knives Out and Jojo Rabbit, are heading into awards season as the favorites in every category they are in. But this choice is a personal one. Eddie Murphy pulled out his best performance in, yet another, Netflix original. He took the role extremely seriously and it showed throughout. Additionally, he was surrounded by some of the greatest comedians in Hollywood and the entire film oozes black excellence. Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, best known for their work on such films like Goosebumps and Agent Cody Banks, absolutely knocked it out of the park with this one. How poetic would it be for Dolemite to pull in a Golden Globe against all odds in a category nobody expects him to win. F***** up motherf*****s is his game, after all.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama

Actor

• Christian Bale – Ford v Ferrari as Ken Miles
• Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory as Salvador Mallo
• Adam Driver – Marriage Story as Charlie Barber
• Joaquin Phoenix – Joker as Arthur Fleck / Joker
• Jonathan Pryce – The Two Popes as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Prediction: Joaquin Phoenix – Joker

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Not enough can be said about Phoenix’s full-body transformation into Arthur Fleck for this Todd Phillips-helmed film. Albeit a highly controversial pick among the ranks here at Full Circle, Joker stands as one of Warner Bros and DC’s greatest accomplishments and Phoenix is the man to thank for such a riveting performance. Sitting in the theater on opening night, you could feel the tension growing as Fleck made his first kill. As he slipped slowly into utter madness. This is one comic book adaptation that will not be pigeonholed as such.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama

Actress

• Cynthia Erivo – Harriet as Harriet Tubman
• Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story as Nicole Barber
• Saoirse Ronan – Little Women as Josephine “Jo” March
• Charlize Theron – Bombshell as Megyn Kelly
• Renée Zellweger – Judy as Judy Garland

Prediction: Saoirse Ronan – Little Women

Little Women, which was given a perfect 10/10 rating by us here at Full Circle, is an extremely feel-good story. And Ronan is at the center of it all. While she is surrounded by a killer cast including Emma Watson and Florence Pugh, she stands as the biggest standout of them all. Her ability to stand out in an extremely tight race is astounding. She holds onto the innate ability to cause fans to empathize with her character completely. They are brought along with her in such a fantastic journey of growth and becoming exactly who she is meant to be. A close, personal second is Renée Zellweger’s turn as Judy Garland because it was near-flawless.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Actor

• Daniel Craig – Knives Out as Benoit Blanc
• Roman Griffin Davis – Jojo Rabbit as Jojo Betzler
• Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Rick Dalton
• Taron Egerton – Rocketman as Elton John
• Eddie Murphy – Dolemite Is My Name as Rudy Ray Moore

Prediction: Eddie Murphy – Dolemite Is My Name

Again: Murphy absolutely crushed this role and I’m, again, going with the personal pick for this first edition of Full Circle Forecast. Rudy Ray Moore is a cultural icon in my household and seeing him brought to life by an incredible performer like Murphy was an insane ride. Murphy is in the midst of an incredible career-resurgence with this film as well as the upcoming sequel to the classic Coming to America. His return to Saturday Night Live proved that the man still has it and it will be fun if he gets to solidify his comeback with a Best Actor win.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Actress

• Ana de Armas – Knives Out as Marta Cabrera
• Awkwafina – The Farewell as Billi Wang
• Cate Blanchett – Where’d You Go, Bernadette as Bernadette Fox
• Beanie Feldstein – Booksmart as Molly Davidson
• Emma Thompson – Late Night as Katherine Newbury

Prediction: Beanie Feldstein – Booksmart

Feldstein is uber-talented. Her work in Lady Bird alongside by pick for Best Actress In A Motion Picture – Drama Saorise Ronan went mostly un-celebrated but this is her year to shine. She performed with an excellent ability to make viewers cringe, laugh, smile, sad and everything in between. Her built-in chemistry with Kaitlyn Dever is something critics, including our own here at Full Circle, gushed about in theaters. Moreover, Feldstein is going to be an absolute force to be reckoned with in films for the next few decades.

Additional Motion Picture Predictions:

Best Animated Feature Film: Frozen II

Best Director: Bong Joon-ho – Parasite

Best Foreign Language Film: Parasite

Best Original Song: “Into the Unknown” (Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez) – Frozen II

Best Television Series – Drama

• Big Little Lies
• The Crown
• Killing Eve
• The Morning Show
• Succession

Prediction: The Morning Show

AppleTV+ came out of the gates swinging with this hard-hitting nail-biter. The cast, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell, step well out of their comfort zones and tell a complete story about sexual abuse in the workplace and the operation to cover it all up. From the mind of Jay Carson (House of Cards) the series blends fiction with reality and takes a shocking twist in its later episodes. The final moments leave it open for a second season, however, the first one is near perfect. Therefore, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is likely to shine a bright light on it this weekend.

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

• Barry
• Fleabag
• The Kominsky Method
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• The Politician

Prediction: Barry

From this list, my personal favorite is The Politician. However, one cannot shy away from the greatness that is Bill Hader’s Barry. A constant thrill ride filled with twists and turns, the series is critically acclaimed and a big favorite among the Full Circle team. Additionally, Hader and company won big at last year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Hader and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his costar Henry Winkler. Additionally, the series, which started off with a unique premise of a hitman going from Ohio to Los Angeles to kill someone and then joining an acting class, is set for a long life on HBO. However, Hader and the series lost out last year at the Golden Globes but 2020 is Barry’s big year at the ceremony, finally.

Best Performance in a Television Series – Drama

Actor

• Brian Cox – Succession as Logan Roy
• Kit Harington – Game of Thrones as Jon Snow
• Rami Malek – Mr. Robot as Elliot Alderson
• Tobias Menzies – The Crown as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
• Billy Porter – Pose as Pray Tell

Prediction: Billy Porter – Pose

Billy Porter is a god. His swagger, his demeanor, all legendary. Broadway was his playground for quite some time, but now, Pose has launched his career to where it belongs: the top. Pose, from the mind of Ryan Murphy, creator of Glee, is set in New York’s African-American and Latino LGBTQ community in the late 1980s. Porter, who plays Pray Tell, has already received the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. However, 2019 saw him lose the Golden Globe. Similar to Bill Hader’s turn in Barry, 2020 is the year for the great Billy Porter.

Best Performance in a Television Series – Drama

Actress

• Jennifer Aniston – The Morning Show as Alex Levy
• Olivia Colman – The Crown as Queen Elizabeth II
• Jodie Comer – Killing Eve as Oksana Astankova/Villanelle
• Nicole Kidman – Big Little Lies as Celeste Wright
• Reese Witherspoon – The Morning Show as Bradley Jackson

Prediction: Jennifer Aniston – The Morning Show

Jennifer Aniston is absolutely killer in The Morning Show. Her character, Alex Levy, co-host of The Morning Show, is thrown in a position where she must make incredibly tough decisions as she navigates the ever-changing landscape of a television production following a sexual abuse scandal. Her scenes with fellow-nominee Reese Witherspoon, Tom Irwin, and Steve Carell were filled with a silent intensity. Towards the ends of the series, her character work progresses in a way that is both touching and empowering to men and women.

Best Performance in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Actor

• Michael Douglas – The Kominsky Method as Sandy Kominsky
• Bill Hader – Barry as Barry Berkman/Barry Block
• Ben Platt – The Politician as Payton Hobart
• Paul Rudd – Living with Yourself as Miles Elliot/Miles Elliot’s Clone
• Ramy Youssef – Ramy as Ramy Hassan

Prediction: Ben Platt – The Politician

I get it. This is probably the MOST stacked category of the entire ceremony. From Michael Douglas to Paul Rudd to Bill Hader, it is an absolute wealth of talent. However, Ben Platt is the Tony Award-winning actor from the iconic musical Dear Evan Hansen. His recent debut studio album, “Sing To Me Instead”, charted at number 18 on the Billboard music charts. Additionally, Ben Platt is one of my favorite performers. His starring role in the Ryan Murphy-created The Politician was equal-parts hysterical, engrossing, and heart-wrenching. Moreover, acting alongside the great Gwyneth Paltrow, Platt’s Payton Hobart shows desperation to be loved and feel important. His desire to become the president of his high school student body encapsulates everything from kidnapping, attempted-murder, faked cancer diagnosis, and adultery. Platt is 100% the underdog in this category’s race, however, I personally hope and believe his performance can pull off the upset.

Best Performance in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Actress

• Christina Applegate – Dead to Me as Jen Harding
• Rachel Brosnahan – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Miriam “Midge” Maisel
• Kirsten Dunst – On Becoming a God in Central Florida as Krystal Stubbs
• Natasha Lyonne – Russian Doll as Nadia Vulvokov
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge – Fleabag as Fleabag

Prediction: Phoebe Waller-Bridge – Fleabag as Fleabag

Fresh off her show’s inclusion on President Barack Obama’s Best TV of 2019 list, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who I just realized was the voice of L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars Story) is well on her way to her to duplicating her Primetime Emmy Award win with the Golden Globes. Amazon’s Fleabag, which was created by and written by Waller-Bridge, is widely regarded as the best show on the small screen. An angry, confused, sexually voracious young woman living in London, as it turns out, is far more relatable than one would think. Fleabag’s writing, acting, uniqueness, and one-of-a-kind personality sets itself apart from the rest. 

Additional Television Predictions:

Best Miniseries or Television Film: Chernobyl

Best Performance in a Miniseries or Television Film, Actor: Sam Rockwell – Fosse/Verdon as Bob Fosse

Best Performance in a Miniseries or Television Film, Actress: Michelle Williams – Fosse/Verdon as Gwen Verdon

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the predictions presented in the first edition of Full Circle Forecast? Be sure to make your voice heard and sound off in the comments below!

The 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards will broadcast live on NBC January 5 at 8/7c. Ricky Gervais will host the ceremony for the fifth time

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