2012 Golden Globe Predictions: Best Picture (Musical/Comedy)

November 29, 2011

By Brad Brevet

I never do a Golden Globe prediction article in advance of the nominations only in advance of the actual awards. But this weekend I started wondering, as Universal sent over a screener for Tower Heist, as I will be doing my own nominations for the Broadcast Film Critics’ Critics Choice Awards in the coming weeks, but more on that in the brief future.

So as I set out to take a look at potential nominees at the 2012 Golden Globes I figured I’d begin with what I see as the most interesting category, Best Picture (Musical/Comedy). Personally, I think it’s still a little archaic to combine these two genres, leaving the other half of the Best Picture equation to dramas, but it is what it is and we must deal with it.

With that said and some help from Pete Hammond at Deadline as far as which films are competing, these are what I believe to be the contenders for the five nominations in the Best Picture (Musical/Comedy) category this year:

According to Hammond, Dreamworks tried to wedge The Help into the category but the HFPA vetoed that attempt and other films such as The Descendants and Moneyball were considered, but Fox Searchlight and Columbia decided to go for the Drama category with both respectively.

Looking at the list I think you have three instant locks in Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris and The Artist, which, for me, leaves two more slots to fill.

After the Independent Spirit Awards nominations this morning, it’s pretty easy to look at Beginners as one of the final two, leaving me to decide between 50/50, My Week with Marilyn, The Muppets and Young Adult for that final slot.

I’ll be seeing Young Adult tomorrow night so it’s a little harder to add it to the list right now. Personally I think My Week with Marilyn is more likely to perform in the acting categories where Michelle Williams is guaranteed a Best Actress (Musical/Comedy) nomination as is Charlize Theron for Young Adult. So at this point I think I will have to go with The Muppets, though 50/50 is just as hard to leave off as the other three.

That said, here are my current predictions for the Best Picture (Musical/Comedy) category with #1 being my predicted winner. And this year I’ll do a full list of predictions for the 2012 Golden Globe nominations are announced on Thursday, December 15th.