Award season is here again, and from the stars of La La Land to Manchester By The Sea we couldn't be more excited by the range of A-List celebrities about to go head to head for these prestigious critics' film awards.
The Golden Globe Awards heads up the most glamorous time in the Hollywood calendar on January 8, with huge names including Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman expected to grace the red carpet - along with our favourite British stars like Olivia Colman, Tom Hiddleston, Naomie Harris and Andrew Garfield.
La La Land is our favourite for the award for best motion picture, musical or comedy
Despite its reputation as the most unpredictable of the season, the Golden Globe Awards are also seen as the ultimate indicator of what we can expect from the rest of the big events - and not just from the red carpet style. The Globes are generally a fantastic indicator of who will bag those coveted Oscars in March, and this year's diverse cast is no exception.
So if you can't wait for the lights, camera and all the action, here are HELLO!'s favourite picks for the Golden Globes 2017 winners…
FILM AWARDS
Best motion picture, drama: Manchester By The Sea
This emotional drama about a divorced man who becomes the guardian of his orphaned nephew wowed critics and festival-goers in 2016, with award-worthy performances from Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams. The strongest competition is perhaps the fierce semi-autobiographical Moonlight, but Lion, Hell or High Water and Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge are all strong enough films to cause an unexpected result.
Best motion picture, musical or comedy: La La Land
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone's La La Land is the film on everyone's lips this year, and the buzz is such that it won't surprise us at all when it sweeps the Oscars. La La Land, by Whiplash director Damien Chazelle, goes up against 20th Century Women, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Lobster and the charming Irish Sing Street, but we don't predict much competition for this celebration of Hollywood glamour and Jazz.
Best performance by an actor in a drama: Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Casey Affleck seems like a shoo-in with his role in the brilliant Manchester by the Sea, but we're sticking with outside bet Andrew Garfield, who put in a transformative performance in the huge real-life war drama Hacksaw Ridge. Fellow Brit Joel Edgerton was phenomenal in racially charged romance Loving, while Denzel Washington (Fences) and Captain Fantastic's Viggo Mortenson finish a powerful category.
Best performance by an actress in a drama: Natalie Portman, Jackie
Natalie Portman has the poise, style and accent utterly on point to bring Jackie Kennedy to life in this powerful drama. However, Natalie is up against some killer performances from Ruth Negga in Loving, Isabelle Huppert in Elle, and Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloan), as well as Amy Adams, nominated for smart sci-fi Arrival (my pick of the year) but who also killed in in Nocturnal Animals and will prove a hard woman to beat.
Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling are going head-to-head for the award for best actor
Best performance by an actor in a comedy or musical: Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Let the battle of the Ryans commence as Reynolds' Deadpool goes head to head with Gosling's La La Land. Jonah Hill is nominated for War Dogs, while our side of the Atlantic is represented by Colin Farrell (in the utterly brilliant The Lobster) and Hugh Grant for Florence Foster Jenkins. Our bet is Ryan Gosling's role in La La Land, who's all-singing, all-dancing, all-playing performance showed him to be a talented triple-threat oozing old Hollywood glamour.
Best performance by an actress in a comedy or musical: Emma Stone, La La Land
Emma goes against Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge of Seventeen, Lily Collins, Rules Don't Apply, Annette Bening, 20th Century Women, and Florence Foster Jenkins' Meryl Streep. Yes, we're betting against Meryl! So sure of a La La Land sweep, we'd even guess the glitzy musical scoops up awards for Best Director (Damien Chazelle), Best Original Score and Best Original Song - though don't count out Justin Timberlake's Trolls hit, Can't Stop the Feeling.
Best performance by a supporting actor in a motion picture: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
We'd love to throw our vote behind Dev Patel's role in Lion, but can't bring ourselves to quite call his starring performance a 'supporting' role. Instead, we're going for Jeff Bridge's complex, old-fashioned performance in Hell or High Water. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals) and Simon Helberg (Florence Foster Jenkins) provide strong competition, but the most likely alternate winner is Moonlight's Mahershala Ali - we'll be seeing a lot more from this brilliant actor whether he takes home a gong or not.
Best performance by a supporting actress in a motion picture: Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Moonlight isn't out in the UK until March, but London-born Naomie's visceral performance as a drug-addicted mother in writer-director Barry Jenkin's War on Drugs drama has our vote. That said, this category also includes career-defining performances from Nicole Kidman for Lion, Viola Davis for Fences, Octavia Spencer for Hidden Figures and Michelle Williams for Manchester By The Sea.
Meryl Streep, Emma Stone and Jeff Bridges are all nominated
TV AWARDS
Best TV miniseries or movie: The People vs O.J. Simpson
We'd love to see The Night Of or The Night Manager take this coveted gong, but who can argue that America went wild for this star-studded retelling of an unbelievable true story? The Dresser and American Crime are also up for this award, but we're confident judge and jury will cast their vote here.
Best TV Drama: Stranger Things
Sharing a nomination with The Crown, Game of Thrones, Westworld and This is Us, this category reads like the ultimate binge-watch list of 2016. But nothing was quite like 80s-set horror Stranger Things in terms of sheer phenomenon. We're astounded that show's leading child stars Millie Bobby Brown, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo - who became instant red carpet darlings at the Emmys - aren't nominated for more.
Best TV comedy: Veep
A political satire masterminded by Armando Iannucci, adapted from Britain's The Thick of It and headed by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss: how could Veep not take the award? However, there's fierce competition from Donald Glover's Atlanta, Mozart in the Jungle and last year's favourites Black-ish and Transparent.
Best performance by an actor in a TV miniseries: Tom Hiddleston, The Night Manager
We loved the BBC's adaptation of John Le Carré's classic spy thriller, and weren't at all surprised to see those extra nods for Hugh Laurie's villainous turn or Olivia Colman's very pregnant performance in the supporting role categories. Tom's biggest rival is the brilliant John Turturro, who is nominated for his classic American crime drama The Night Of, as is Riz Ahmed. Courtney B. Vance, The People vs. O.J. Simpson, and Bryan Cranston, All The Way, round out the category.
The People v O.J Simpson is nominated for best miniseries
Best performance by an actress in a TV miniseries: Sarah Paulson, The People v O.J. Simpson
Sarah goes head to head with Confirmation's Kerry Washington, Elvis' granddaughter Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience), Felicity Huffman (American Crime) and Britain’s Charlotte Rampling (London Spy), but we think her performance as prosecutor Marcia Clarke in The People vs O.J. Simpson will capture America's hearts and votes and help the show achieve a -nearly - clean sweep of the major categories.
Best performance by a supporting actor in a TV miniseries: John Travolta or Sterling K Brown, The People vs O.J. Simpson
The real life miniseries documenting the O.J. Simpson was addictive viewing for us all, but took on a special significance in the USA as it reflected the cultural phenomenon of the original events. Although Sterling and John go up against big names in bigger roles - Christian Slater for Mr Robot, Hugh Laurie for The Night Manager and John Lithgow for Netflix’s royal drama The Crown - we're sure the jury will decide in The People's favour.
Best performance by a supporting actress in a TV miniseries: Thandie Newton, Westworld
The Brits are taking over this category, with Thandie going up against Lena Headey, Game of Thrones, and Olivia Colman, The Night Manager. Chrissy Metz and Mandy Moore are also nominated for This Is Us, but our bets are on stunning Thandie, who was wonderfully fierce in the strange and surreal Western.
Best performance by an actor in a TV drama: Rami Malek, Mr Robot
This is a hard pick, as Mr Robot's Rami contends with Ray Donovan's Liev Schreiber, The Americans Matthew Rhys, Goliath's Billy Bob Thornton and Better Call Saul's Bob Odenkirk. It's a big year for Netflix, so Bob could be in to win, but we think U.S. critics are still wowed by Mr Robot's daring approach to go for the marvelous Rami Malek.
Best performance by an actress in a TV Drama: Winona Ryder, Stranger Things
While we'd love to put our vote behind Claire Foy's utterly perfect performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, is there still anybody out there that hasn't watched Netflix's runaway 80s-set hit Stranger Things? Winona Ryder is at her incomparable best in the series, and despite competition from Claire, Outlander's Caitriona Balfe, Westworld's Evan Rachel Wood and The Americans Kerri Russell, we reckon she's got this in the bag. Winona Forever!
Best performance by an actor in a TV comedy: Donald Glover, Atlanta
While an argument could be made for Gael Garcia Bernal's brilliant Mozart in the Jungle or a second Golden Globe for Transparent's Jeffrey Tambor, our guess is Donald Glover, who created and stars in Atlanta. Nick Nolte for Graves and Anthony Anderson for Black-ish round out this diverse and daring category.
Best performance by an actress in a TV comedy: Sarah Jessica Parker, Divorce
Isn't it great to have SJP's stylish self back on the telly? Divorce is our pick of the TV comedies in this category, though there's plenty of competition from Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Tracy Ellis Ross (Black-ish), awards darling Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Veep) and newcomer Issa Rae (Insecure).
We will be bringing you extensive coverage of all the news, photos and red carpet style straight from the Golden Globes 2017.
