2026 Golden Globes Predictions: Will This Year’s Horror Movies Be Rewarded?
From Sinners to Bugonia, we analyse the chances of the horror films in the motion picture categories
by Alex Secilmis 8 January 2026
Between Sinners, Frankenstein, and Weapons, 2026 is shaping up to be a landmark year for horror as far as Awards Season success. After both Ryan Coogler’s vampire epic and Guillermo del Toro’s Shelley adaptation left last Sunday’s Critics Choice Awards with four honours, the most of the night, the Golden Globes will be pivotal in determining whether those films can go the distance with the Actor Awards, BAFTAs, and Oscars all on the horizon.
But don’t expect the ceremony this Sunday at the Beverly Hilton to mark another historic night for the genre. There’s no telling whether the surprise supporting acting wins for Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi and Weapons’ Amy Madigan will repeat beyond the Critics Choice Awards, and the lack of artisan categories harms Frankenstein’s chances in particular. The Netflix film won’t be able to pick up wins for Costume Design, Makeup, and Production Design, and there’s no Young Performer award for Sinners’ Miles Caton to snag either. Still, there could well be a few victories in store for the genre in the major categories
Best Motion Picture (Drama)
Frankenstein
Hamnet
It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value
PREDICTED WINNER: Sinners
The Secret Agent
While the Globes are sure to be more of an uphill battle for horror cinema, the Best Motion Picture (Drama) category could see a major win for Sinners. With One Battle After Another sidelined in the Musical/Comedy category, the question becomes whether Coogler’s bloody spectacle can edge out more traditional contenders like Hamnet and Sentimental Value. It’s far from standard for a “scary movie” to take home the top prizes, but Sinners could appeal to more sceptical voters with its status as a hybrid horror flick, boasting slick genre thrills while also working as a period gangster film. It’s a tough category to call, and Sinners is nowhere near being a surefire favourite, but whoever wins, the selection is an exciting sign of the recent move to highlight more foreign films—over half of the nominees are international features that premiered at Cannes.
Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy)
Blue Moon
Bugonia
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Nouvelle Vague
PREDICTED WINNER: One Battle After Another
The win at the Critics Choice Awards, long regarded as the ceremony that best predicts the eventual Oscar winners, has made it clear: One Battle After Another is the current Best Picture front-runner. It’s easy to see why: the Warner Bros. thriller is an electric movie from a seasoned Hollywood director in Paul Thomas Anderson, led by a veteran Hollywood star in Leonardo DiCaprio, that is both a fiercely current film and a revival of the kind of big-screen original filmmaking that has gradually been forced out of the business. While I would love to see pitch-black, horror-tinged capitalism satires Bugonia and No Other Choice triumph here, if any film upsets PTA’s latest, it will be Josh Safdie’s hard-to-categorise sports/heist film comedy-drama Marty Supreme.
Best Actor (Drama)
Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams
Oscar Isaac, Frankenstein
Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
PREDICTED WINNER: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
While this category features two horror leading men, Oscar Isaac’s wonderfully maximalist take on Victor Frankenstein is never going to go all the way. The race instead lies between Michael B. Jordan and Wagner Moura (Dwayne Johnson would have been a contender if The Smashing Machine had been more enthusiastically received), and the Globes’ practice of splitting categories by genre allows us to determine who is most likely to upset Timothée Chalamet later in the Awards Season. Michael B. Jordan gives a commanding dual performance in Sinners, buoyed by old-fashioned movie star charm, and while Globes voters may respond enthusiastically to the technical achievement of his double shift, I suspect that Wagner Moura’s stellar turn in The Secret Agent will triumph. Moura won Best Actor at Cannes, and, with the longstanding prejudice against horror films always sure to be a factor, the political thriller is a far more familiar genre to voters.
© Warner Bros.
Best Actress (Musical/Comedy)
PREDICTED WINNER: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked: For Good
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone, Bugonia
With Jessie Buckley’s stirring performance in Hamnet, an old-school “awards-bait” film if ever there was one, likely to earn her every Best Actress win until the Oscars, the Musical/Comedy race is a significant chance for another performer to get a victory under their belt. I would argue that Emma Stone’s uncanny, go-for-broke portrayal of a ruthless CEO suspected of being an alien deserves another win, but Bugonia is probably too bleak and disturbing a film to curry much favour with voters. The clear winner here is Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a comedy-drama that still allows for an intense, thoroughly dramatic performance.
Best Actor (Musical/Comedy)
PREDICTED WINNER: Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
George Clooney, Jay Kelly
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Lee Byung-hun, No Other Choice
Jesse Plemons, Bugonia
If there is one performance that pains me to see unrewarded this year (only because I know it stands no chance), it may well be Jesse Plemons’ heartbreaking performance as a conspiracy theorist in Bugonia. It’s career-best work from the American actor, something I could also say of Lee Byung-hun’s lead role in No Other Choice, but this category should be a firm lock for Timothée Chalamet’s excellent gonzo performance in Marty Supreme.
Best Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt, The Smashing Machine
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande, Wicked: For Good
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
PREDICTED WINNER: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
If Ariana Grande were in this category for Wicked, rather than its divisive sequel, the actress and pop megastar would comfortably walk away with a win. But Wicked: For Good’s failure to receive a Best Motion Picture (Musical Comedy) nomination points to Grande being shut out here, too. Meanwhile, Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas were obvious choices for their grounded roles in Sentimental Value, but neither seems like a clear-cut winner, and the same can be said for Emily Blunt in The Smashing Machine in the too-often-parodied part of a fiery partner to a boxer. Teyana Taylor becomes the likely winner for her powerhouse performance in OBAA, but Amy Madigan’s delightfully bizarre turn in Weapons as the villainous Gladys could secure another win after her surprise victory at the Critics Choice Awards. I would wager that Madigan’s role is too unusual to be picked by the majority of Globes voters, but I would love to be proven wrong.
© Warner Bros.
Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Paul Mescal, Hamnet
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Adam Sandler, Jay Kelly
PREDICTED WINNER: Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
While I could understand Amy Madigan’s Critics Choice Awards win (it’s a standout supporting performance and became widely celebrated culturally), I was shocked that Jacob Elordi beat out Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Stellan Skarsgård. Elordi’s performance was a revelation and my personal favourite of the year, but as a younger actor without the critical cache of someone like Timothée Chalamet, I’m doubtful that his transformative turn as the Creature will continue to be rewarded. Penn and Del Toro could split the vote for fans of OBAA, so I reckon that Skarsgård will take the trophy for his sensitive portrayal of an older filmmaker trying to reconnect with his family. Still, it’s not a very showy performance, and Elordi has a chance to sneak another victory in that regard.
Best Director
PREDICTED WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
For all the reasons that One Battle After Another should easily win Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy), Paul Thomas Anderson is an easy prediction for Best Director. OBAA is a sprawling, kinetic epic delicately controlled by PTA, but the same goes for Sinners and Coogler’s direction. PTA has never won a Golden Globe nor an Oscar, so his nearly 30 years of experience making critically-acclaimed original films is a major factor in his favour, where voters may feel like they owe him the award for both this film and the sum of his career (see Leonardo DiCaprio’s win for The Revenant in 2016). Coogler, however, shouldn’t be counted out.
Best Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
PREDICTED WINNER: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, Sentimental Value
Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
This is another somewhat hopeful prediction, but I could absolutely see Coogler consistently picking up the Best Screenplay throughout this Awards Season as something of a consolation prize. Voters for the Globes and beyond may regard OBAA as a locked choice for Best Picture and Best Director and consequently reward Sinners here, celebrating the originality of Coogler’s story and his moving, socially-conscious reinvention of the vampire myth. Then again, PTA could easily claim this, as could Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie for their winding, breathless Marty Supreme script. Out of the two foreign films, Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt could also win for Sentimental Value and their elaborate yet grounded script, even though I see it losing to Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident in the Best Motion Picture (Non-English Language) category.
© Warner Bros.
Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, Frankenstein
PREDICTED WINNER: Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Jonny Greenwood, One Battle After Another
Kangding Ray, Sirāt
Max Richter, Hamnet
Hans Zimmer, F1
Best Original Score is the only award I can confidently say a horror film will claim on Sunday night. Göransson won this award for Oppenheimer in 2024, and especially given the film’s focus on music, his decade and genre-defying, Blues-infused score for Sinners is all but a lock.
Best Original Song
“Dream as One”, Avatar: Fire and Ash
PREDICTED WINNER: “Golden”, KPop Demon Hunters
“I Lied to You”, Sinners
“No Place Like Home”, Wicked: For Good
“The Girl in the Bubble”, Wicked: For Good
“Train Dreams”, Train Dreams
A smash global hit, “Golden” from Netflix’s breakout animated film Kpop Demon Hunters is poised to win this award without too much trouble. If “Golden” has any competition, it’s “I Lied to You” from Sinners, along with the Ariana Grande solo track “The Girl in the Bubble”, one of two new songs written for Wicked: For Good.
Cinematic and Box Office Achievement
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
KPop Demon Hunters
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning
PREDICTED WINNER: Sinners
Weapons
Wicked: For Good
Zootopia 2
Now this could be the real consolation prize for Sinners if it misses out on Best Motion Picture (Drama), Director, and Screenplay. As a hugely successful and culturally significant original, R-rated horror epic, Sinners fits the bill for this recently introduced category, which has so far been awarded to Barbie and Wicked, two smash hits that were both Best Picture contenders that didn’t quite stand a chance of going all the way. The difference is that Sinners may well win in the major categories, which may dissuade voters from selecting it for this category. If that is the case, then expect KPop Demon Hunters to bring this award home.
2026 Golden Globes Predictions: Will This Year’s Horror Movies Be Rewarded?
From Sinners to Bugonia, we analyse the chances of the horror films in the motion picture categories
by Alex Secilmis 8 January 2026
Between Sinners, Frankenstein, and Weapons, 2026 is shaping up to be a landmark year for horror as far as Awards Season success. After both Ryan Coogler’s vampire epic and Guillermo del Toro’s Shelley adaptation left last Sunday’s Critics Choice Awards with four honours, the most of the night, the Golden Globes will be pivotal in determining whether those films can go the distance with the Actor Awards, BAFTAs, and Oscars all on the horizon.
But don’t expect the ceremony this Sunday at the Beverly Hilton to mark another historic night for the genre. There’s no telling whether the surprise supporting acting wins for Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi and Weapons’ Amy Madigan will repeat beyond the Critics Choice Awards, and the lack of artisan categories harms Frankenstein’s chances in particular. The Netflix film won’t be able to pick up wins for Costume Design, Makeup, and Production Design, and there’s no Young Performer award for Sinners’ Miles Caton to snag either. Still, there could well be a few victories in store for the genre in the major categories
Best Motion Picture (Drama)
Frankenstein
Hamnet
It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value
PREDICTED WINNER: Sinners
The Secret Agent
While the Globes are sure to be more of an uphill battle for horror cinema, the Best Motion Picture (Drama) category could see a major win for Sinners. With One Battle After Another sidelined in the Musical/Comedy category, the question becomes whether Coogler’s bloody spectacle can edge out more traditional contenders like Hamnet and Sentimental Value. It’s far from standard for a “scary movie” to take home the top prizes, but Sinners could appeal to more sceptical voters with its status as a hybrid horror flick, boasting slick genre thrills while also working as a period gangster film. It’s a tough category to call, and Sinners is nowhere near being a surefire favourite, but whoever wins, the selection is an exciting sign of the recent move to highlight more foreign films—over half of the nominees are international features that premiered at Cannes.
Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy)
Blue Moon
Bugonia
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Nouvelle Vague
PREDICTED WINNER: One Battle After Another
The win at the Critics Choice Awards, long regarded as the ceremony that best predicts the eventual Oscar winners, has made it clear: One Battle After Another is the current Best Picture front-runner. It’s easy to see why: the Warner Bros. thriller is an electric movie from a seasoned Hollywood director in Paul Thomas Anderson, led by a veteran Hollywood star in Leonardo DiCaprio, that is both a fiercely current film and a revival of the kind of big-screen original filmmaking that has gradually been forced out of the business. While I would love to see pitch-black, horror-tinged capitalism satires Bugonia and No Other Choice triumph here, if any film upsets PTA’s latest, it will be Josh Safdie’s hard-to-categorise sports/heist film comedy-drama Marty Supreme.
Best Actor (Drama)
Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams
Oscar Isaac, Frankenstein
Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
PREDICTED WINNER: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
While this category features two horror leading men, Oscar Isaac’s wonderfully maximalist take on Victor Frankenstein is never going to go all the way. The race instead lies between Michael B. Jordan and Wagner Moura (Dwayne Johnson would have been a contender if The Smashing Machine had been more enthusiastically received), and the Globes’ practice of splitting categories by genre allows us to determine who is most likely to upset Timothée Chalamet later in the Awards Season. Michael B. Jordan gives a commanding dual performance in Sinners, buoyed by old-fashioned movie star charm, and while Globes voters may respond enthusiastically to the technical achievement of his double shift, I suspect that Wagner Moura’s stellar turn in The Secret Agent will triumph. Moura won Best Actor at Cannes, and, with the longstanding prejudice against horror films always sure to be a factor, the political thriller is a far more familiar genre to voters.
© Warner Bros.
Best Actress (Musical/Comedy)
PREDICTED WINNER: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked: For Good
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone, Bugonia
With Jessie Buckley’s stirring performance in Hamnet, an old-school “awards-bait” film if ever there was one, likely to earn her every Best Actress win until the Oscars, the Musical/Comedy race is a significant chance for another performer to get a victory under their belt. I would argue that Emma Stone’s uncanny, go-for-broke portrayal of a ruthless CEO suspected of being an alien deserves another win, but Bugonia is probably too bleak and disturbing a film to curry much favour with voters. The clear winner here is Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a comedy-drama that still allows for an intense, thoroughly dramatic performance.
Best Actor (Musical/Comedy)
PREDICTED WINNER: Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
George Clooney, Jay Kelly
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Lee Byung-hun, No Other Choice
Jesse Plemons, Bugonia
If there is one performance that pains me to see unrewarded this year (only because I know it stands no chance), it may well be Jesse Plemons’ heartbreaking performance as a conspiracy theorist in Bugonia. It’s career-best work from the American actor, something I could also say of Lee Byung-hun’s lead role in No Other Choice, but this category should be a firm lock for Timothée Chalamet’s excellent gonzo performance in Marty Supreme.
Best Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt, The Smashing Machine
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande, Wicked: For Good
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
PREDICTED WINNER: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
If Ariana Grande were in this category for Wicked, rather than its divisive sequel, the actress and pop megastar would comfortably walk away with a win. But Wicked: For Good’s failure to receive a Best Motion Picture (Musical Comedy) nomination points to Grande being shut out here, too. Meanwhile, Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas were obvious choices for their grounded roles in Sentimental Value, but neither seems like a clear-cut winner, and the same can be said for Emily Blunt in The Smashing Machine in the too-often-parodied part of a fiery partner to a boxer. Teyana Taylor becomes the likely winner for her powerhouse performance in OBAA, but Amy Madigan’s delightfully bizarre turn in Weapons as the villainous Gladys could secure another win after her surprise victory at the Critics Choice Awards. I would wager that Madigan’s role is too unusual to be picked by the majority of Globes voters, but I would love to be proven wrong.
© Warner Bros.
Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Paul Mescal, Hamnet
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Adam Sandler, Jay Kelly
PREDICTED WINNER: Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
While I could understand Amy Madigan’s Critics Choice Awards win (it’s a standout supporting performance and became widely celebrated culturally), I was shocked that Jacob Elordi beat out Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Stellan Skarsgård. Elordi’s performance was a revelation and my personal favourite of the year, but as a younger actor without the critical cache of someone like Timothée Chalamet, I’m doubtful that his transformative turn as the Creature will continue to be rewarded. Penn and Del Toro could split the vote for fans of OBAA, so I reckon that Skarsgård will take the trophy for his sensitive portrayal of an older filmmaker trying to reconnect with his family. Still, it’s not a very showy performance, and Elordi has a chance to sneak another victory in that regard.
Best Director
PREDICTED WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
For all the reasons that One Battle After Another should easily win Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy), Paul Thomas Anderson is an easy prediction for Best Director. OBAA is a sprawling, kinetic epic delicately controlled by PTA, but the same goes for Sinners and Coogler’s direction. PTA has never won a Golden Globe nor an Oscar, so his nearly 30 years of experience making critically-acclaimed original films is a major factor in his favour, where voters may feel like they owe him the award for both this film and the sum of his career (see Leonardo DiCaprio’s win for The Revenant in 2016). Coogler, however, shouldn’t be counted out.
Best Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
PREDICTED WINNER: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, Sentimental Value
Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
This is another somewhat hopeful prediction, but I could absolutely see Coogler consistently picking up the Best Screenplay throughout this Awards Season as something of a consolation prize. Voters for the Globes and beyond may regard OBAA as a locked choice for Best Picture and Best Director and consequently reward Sinners here, celebrating the originality of Coogler’s story and his moving, socially-conscious reinvention of the vampire myth. Then again, PTA could easily claim this, as could Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie for their winding, breathless Marty Supreme script. Out of the two foreign films, Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt could also win for Sentimental Value and their elaborate yet grounded script, even though I see it losing to Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident in the Best Motion Picture (Non-English Language) category.
© Warner Bros.
Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, Frankenstein
PREDICTED WINNER: Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Jonny Greenwood, One Battle After Another
Kangding Ray, Sirāt
Max Richter, Hamnet
Hans Zimmer, F1
Best Original Score is the only award I can confidently say a horror film will claim on Sunday night. Göransson won this award for Oppenheimer in 2024, and especially given the film’s focus on music, his decade and genre-defying, Blues-infused score for Sinners is all but a lock.
Best Original Song
“Dream as One”, Avatar: Fire and Ash
PREDICTED WINNER: “Golden”, KPop Demon Hunters
“I Lied to You”, Sinners
“No Place Like Home”, Wicked: For Good
“The Girl in the Bubble”, Wicked: For Good
“Train Dreams”, Train Dreams
A smash global hit, “Golden” from Netflix’s breakout animated film Kpop Demon Hunters is poised to win this award without too much trouble. If “Golden” has any competition, it’s “I Lied to You” from Sinners, along with the Ariana Grande solo track “The Girl in the Bubble”, one of two new songs written for Wicked: For Good.
Cinematic and Box Office Achievement
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
KPop Demon Hunters
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning
PREDICTED WINNER: Sinners
Weapons
Wicked: For Good
Zootopia 2
Now this could be the real consolation prize for Sinners if it misses out on Best Motion Picture (Drama), Director, and Screenplay. As a hugely successful and culturally significant original, R-rated horror epic, Sinners fits the bill for this recently introduced category, which has so far been awarded to Barbie and Wicked, two smash hits that were both Best Picture contenders that didn’t quite stand a chance of going all the way. The difference is that Sinners may well win in the major categories, which may dissuade voters from selecting it for this category. If that is the case, then expect KPop Demon Hunters to bring this award home.