The 78th Golden Globe Awards are scheduled to be held this Sunday and while Hollywood’s A-listers are staying home, they will have plenty of reasons to party– from history-making female filmmakers to posthumous honour for a Black film star. This year’s Globes is also expected to massively boost or fatally dash the hopes the film awards frontrunners like ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ and ‘Nomadland’, reported AFP.

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“If I had to guess… ‘Chicago 7’ is in good shape,” said Deadline awards columnist Pete Hammond. “It hits the zeitgeist… even though it takes place 50 years ago. And it’s got a big cast of stars.”

In contrast, ‘Nomadland’ throws Oscar winner Frances McDormand in with a bunch of non-actors, who truly live on the open road — a “daring” move that may see it overtake its rivals, according to Variety awards editor Tim Gray.

“It’s the definition of a little film… a film that stays with you,” he said, adding he still tipped ‘Chicago 7’ to win best drama film.

They will have to best Anthony Hopkins’ dementia drama ‘The Father,’ ‘Me Too’ thriller ‘Promising Young Woman,’ and ‘Mank,’ David Fincher’s ode to ‘Citizen Kane,’ which topped the overall nominations with six.

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While the fight for best drama is tight, Chloe Zhao is seen as the clear favourite to scoop the best director. Zhao’s win would be historic as she would be only the second female winner in the Globes’ long history and the first woman of Asian descent.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association had nominated only five female directors in the last 77 years, but Zhao is in a race alongside Emerald Fennell for ‘Promising Young Woman’ and Regina King for ‘One Night in Miami’.

Several movies with predominantly Black casts including ‘One Night in Miami’ missed out on best film nominations from the HFPA’s mainly-white, 90-odd voters.

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But one African American star is a strong bet for lead actor honours — the late Chadwick Boseman.

Boseman died last August from cancer after a string of seminal roles, including ‘Black Panther’. He put in an arguably career-best performance as a tragic young trumpet player in 1920s blues drama ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’.

“This is his best part, and the backstory is that he knew this might be his last performance — so that’s kind of hard to resist,” said Gray.

On the lead actress side, Carey Mulligan’s ‘Promising Young Woman’ — a revenge-seeker who sneaks at bars, feigning drunkenness to lure men into revealing their own misogyny — leads a pack including McDormand and Viola Davis as legendary crooner Ma Rainey.

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The Globes split most movie categories into drama and ‘musical or comedy,’ unlike the Oscars, with Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Borat’ sequel and the Disney+ film of the hit musical ‘Hamilton’ leading the latter fields.

Cohen also has a best-supporting actor nod for ‘Chicago 7,’ while the Globes offer ‘Hamilton’ its best shot at film honours after the Oscars declared the taping of Broadway shows ineligible.

In a Globes first, part of the show will take place down the road from Broadway at New York’s Rainbow Room, where Tina Fey will be joined by presenters including Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Amy Poehler will co-host a scaled-down remote broadcast from the Globes’ traditional base at a Beverly Hills hotel, as Globes organizers scramble to cope with California restrictions in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The A-list audience and nominees are expected to largely remain at home, accepting awards via videolink — similar to the format of September’s widely praised Emmys — although precise details remain under wraps.

While the Globes are typically known as a raucous, star-studded and champagne-soaked event, Hammond predicted a “subdued party atmosphere”.

That may not matter to the winners at Sunday’s ceremony, which due to pandemic-related delays is being held five days before voting begins for April’s Oscars.

“Those wins will be fresh,” said Gray.

“If you win a Golden Globe… it’s a notice to Oscar voters — you’d better see this film before you vote because it’s worth looking at.”