2013 Golden Globes: Predictions and Proclamations

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To get you prepared for the upcoming ceremony, we’re posting our own predictions and proclamations, taking a look at who will win, who should win and who got snubbed.

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Nominated: Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables), Helen Hunt (The Sessions), Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy)

Who Will Win: Anne Hathaway
In the film’s standout moment, Anne Hathaway beautifully captures the essence of despair in a long, shaky take of “I Dreamed a Dream.” Hathaway intensely feels the music. Her character, Fantine, has been stripped of all dignity in her efforts to earn money to care for her daughter. Hathaway sings the song not just with desperation, but with anger and heartbreak. It’s great singing and great acting. Perhaps the film’s biggest disadvantage is that nothing in the remaining two hours can quite top it.—Jeremy Mathews

Who Should Win: Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway’s performance in Les Miserables featured less screen time than any of her fellow nominees; however her role is much more powerful, and that’s what matters. Her rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream” has become the definitive version of the song, and in a film that most critics are mixed on, Hathaway is the one aspect of Les Mis that almost all of them can agree is award-worthy.—Ross Bonaime

Who Got Snubbed: Ann Dowd (Compliance)
Upon first viewing, Dreama Walker’s raw performance is the one that stands out. But as the film implants itself in your mind, it’s Ann Dowd’s wonderfully nuanced portrayal of the “adult in charge” that you can’t get out of your head.—Michael Dunaway

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Nominated: Alan Arkin (Argo), Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Who Will Win: Tommy Lee Jones
In a movie filled with big names, Tommy Lee Jones “at times steals the show as the hilarious and outspoken Pennsylvania Republican Representative Thaddeus Stevens, a grumpy old, wig-wearing politician who likes to name-call more than actually debate,” as David Roark noted in our Lincoln review.

Who Should Win: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best actors working today, and this is some of his finest work. His performance has an unmistakable magnetism that makes it easy to understand why people follow Dodd. The most interesting thing about him may be his draw toward Freddie, a man whose unpredictability could ruin the religious empire he’s trying to build. Perhaps establishing control over Freddie would be the ultimate achievement.—Jeremy Matthews

Who Got Snubbed: Javier Bardem (Skyfall)
This time 007 has to follow the trail of a stolen list of undercover NATO operatives—dangerous information in the wrong hands. Those wrong hands belong to Mr. Silva (Javier Bardem), a nasty cyber-terrorist with a mad-on for MI6 in general and for its director, M, in particular. Bardem’s Silva is a throwback to a more traditional Bond villain, with equal parts creepy sensuality, intelligence and psychopathy, and a touch of physical deformity for good measure.—Dan Kaufman

Best Director, Motion Picture

Nominated: Ben Affleck (Argo), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Ang Lee (Life of Pi), Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Who Will Win: Quentin Tarantino
The best thing about Quentin Tarantino is also the worst thing about Quentin Tarantino—he believes, wholeheartedly, in whatever he’s doing. Most of the time, what he’s doing consists of overly referential homage mashups with dialogue that would give most screenwriters carpal tunnel. The old video store clerk is sublime at saying important things through mediums that don’t usually convey them—Kung Fu films, revenge fantasies and spaghetti Westerns, for starters. He is an artist dressed as a Philistine, splattering the screen with cartoonish violence when what he’s really blowing is our minds.Tarantino’s latest effort isn’t his best, but it is his most ambitious, and for someone capable of so much, that means quite a lot.—Tyler Chase

Who Should Win: Ang Lee
Leave it to director Ang Lee to create a thinking man’s blockbuster. In much of his past work, he has strived to imbue his stories with a deep sense of purpose—to explore themes of longing and connection. Even when dabbling in genre films, he’s tried to look past the Hollywood flash and stay true to this artistic vision, for better (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) or worse (Hulk). With Life of Pi, Lee may have found the perfect balance of spectacle and substance, creating his best outing in years.—Dan Kaufman

Who Got Snubbed: Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
In his feature debut, director Benh Zeitlin has stirred up a magic pot of poetry, neo-realism, surrealism, pre-historic creatures, the ice age, childhood and lost cultures. The film is a symphony of curiosity that builds toward a glorious crescendo. It’s set on an island known as “The Bathtub,” located outside the Louisiana levees. It’s a forbidden land—off-limits according to the government—but misfits still inhabit it, living in makeshift shelters and using vehicles that would be at home in a post-apocalyptic world. If Zeitlin’s sheer ambition weren’t enough, the film’s young star and narrator, Quvenzhané Wallis, was born with a magnetic screen presence. Six-year-old Wallis injects Beasts with youthful verve. The story is told through her character’s curious eyes, and she emits so much lovable hope that it’s impossible not to follow her.—Jeremy Mathews