Entertainment

Our movie picks for the Golden Globes

That dubiously credentialed band of freeloaders known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will hand out their 71st annual Golden Globes Sunday night in booze-soaked ceremonies that will be telecast on NBC. Here are my picks to win in 10 top film categories:

Best Picture/Drama

“12 Years a Slave”
“Captain Phillips”
“Gravity”
“Philomena”
“Rush”

Lou’s pick: “12 Years a Slave” – Barring an upset by “Gravity,” the award goes to this harrowing drama with a British director, mostly European actors — and co-producer Brad Pitt, a longtime favorite of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Best Actor/Drama

Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Idris Elba, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
Tom Hanks, “Captain Phillips”
Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Robert Redford, “All Is Lost”

Lou’s pick: Matthew McConaughey – First-time Globe nominee McConaughey’s electrifying performance as an AIDS activist is flashier than Ejiofor’s subtle yet powerful work in “12 Years a Slave,” but it’s a very tight race — and you can’t rule out Robert Redford (a HFPA favorite who collected his first Globe in 1966) for “All Is Lost.”

Best Actress/Drama

Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Sandra Bullock, “Gravity”
Judi Dench, “Philomena”
Emma Thompson, “Saving Mr. Banks”
Kate Winslet, “Labor Day”

Lou’s pick: Cate Blanchett – She’s a lock.

Best Picture/Comedy

“American Hustle”
“Her”
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Nebraska”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”

Lou’s pick: “American Hustle” – Director David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” lost in this category (which included musicals) last year to “Les Miserables,” but “Hustle” looks to have a vastly better shot at the Best Picture Oscar than that or, say, “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Best Actor/Comedy

Christian Bale, “American Hustle”
Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Oscar Isaac, “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Joaquin Phoenix, “Her”

Lou’s pick: Leonardo DiCaprio – A longtime HFPA favorite with eight previous nominations, DiCaprio looks to win for the first time since “The Aviator” (2004) — unless the “Wolf” backlash benefits Bruce Dern of “Nebraska.”

Best Actress/Comedy

Amy Adams, “American Hustle”
Julie Delpy, “Before Midnight”
Greta Gerwig, “Frances Ha”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Enough Said”
Meryl Streep, “August: Osage County”

Lou’s pick: Amy Adams – Winless after four previous Globe nods, Adams could finally triumph this year — unless the HFPA voters decide she’s eclipsed by Jennifer Lawrence (nominated in the Best Supporting category for “Hustle’’) and give it instead to Julia-Louis Dreyfuss, who won for TV’s “Seinfeld’’ way back in 1989.

Amy Adams played Sydney Prosser in “American Hustle.”Francois Duhamel

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips”
Daniel Brühl, “Rush”
Bradley Cooper, “American Hustle”
Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”

Lou’s pick: Jared Leto – It will be hard to beat Leto, who gives a stunning, heart-wrenching performance as a transsexual drug addict with AIDS — he’s also a frontrunner in this category at the Oscars.

Jared Leto at a red carpet event for his movie “Dallas Buyers Club” at the Rome Film Festival.REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Hawkins, “Blue Jasmine”
Jennifer Lawrence, “American Hustle”
Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Julia Roberts, “August: Osage County”
June Squibb, “Nebraska”

Lou’s pick: Lupita Nyong’o – Newcomer Nyong’o is unforgettable in one of the year’s hardest-to-watch scenes. And her main competitor, Lawrence, won the Best Actress prize at both the Globes and Oscars just last year.

Michael Fassbender (left) Lupita Nyong’o (center) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) in a scene from “12 Years A Slave.”AP Photo/Francois Duhamel

Best Director

Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”
Paul Greengrass, “Captain Phillips”
Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”
Alexander Payne, “Nebraska”
David O. Russell, “American Hustle”

Lou’s pick: Alfonso Cuaron – With all due respect to Sandra Bullock, “Gravity” is a directorial tour-de-force unlike any other film. This seems the most appropriate place to honor Cuaron’s extraordinary accomplishment.

Best Animated Feature

“The Croods”
“Despicable Me 2”
“Frozen”

Lou’s pick: “Frozen” – There are only three nominees, and the year’s best animated film (“The Wind Rises”) was gerrymandered into the foreign-language film category. So no real competition for the popular “Frozen” here.