Will the 2026 Golden Globes Be a Favourites Playground?

by Roy Brindley, 11 December 2025

The 2026 Golden Globe Awards nominations have been announced. Fans have just a month to wait for the prizegiving ceremony, and the bookies cannot wait.

In 2025, Nikki Glaser made showbiz history as the first woman to host the Golden Globes solo. She will return in 2026. © Getty Images

Key Facts:

• Black comedy action thriller One Battle After Another, has received nine Golden Globe nominations.
• The Golden Globes are considered the best form-pointer for the Academy Awards.
• Hamnet is the odds-on favourite in the Best Motion Picture and Best Actress (Drama) categories.
• The Secret Agent could claim two gongs and deliver a 7/1 winner.

Nominations for the 83rd Golden Globe Awards have been announced. The winners will be revealed on January 11, 2026, at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. Nikki Glaser, the New York Times Comedian of the Year, will present the show.

The first major award show of the season – and the first major Hollywood honours to reveal their shortlists – will be broadcast in more than 185 countries and territories worldwide. Unsurprisingly, online betting sites are keen to get involved.

Topping the Golden Globe film nominations is the black comedy action thriller, One Battle After Another. It has received nine nominations within the Globe’s 15 film categories. With eight nominations, Sentimental Value has received the second-most, followed by Sinners with seven.

The White Lotus heads the list with six nominations in the television category. However, UK bookmakers have not prepared betting markets for any of the 12 awards up for grabs in this genre of entertainment.

Where Do the Bookmakers See the Big Seven Globes Going?

The Globe’s seven headline awards will generate the most betting interest. The destination of the trophies in each category will also have a significant impact on the betting for the Academy Awards scheduled for the beginning of March. This event is considered the best form-pointer for the Oscars.

Below, we will take a look at the nominations in the showpiece award categories along with the bookmaker’s latest odds about their potential success.

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Already released in the US but not in UK cinemas until January 9, Hamnet is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about Shakespeare’s family. It was filmed in the UK, and despite boasting Steven Spielberg as its producer, it was made on a relatively small budget.

Box office takings have so far been disappointing, at around $5 million; nevertheless, the two-hour film has won some significant awards at major events, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the San Diego International Film Festival.

Betting: Hamnet 8/11, Sinners 15/8, It Was Just an Accident 11/2, Sentimental Value 11/1, Frankenstein 33/1, The Secret Agent 50/1.

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Costing in the region of $130-$175 million to make and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another is considered a box office bomb, having taken $205 million at the box office – almost $100 million short of its break-even point.

Nevertheless, critics love the film, and accolades and awards have rained down on One Battle After Another. Review aggregator websites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic have given it scores and ratings in the mid-90s. Does that popularity justify its 1/10 odds?

Betting: One Battle After Another 1/10, Marty Supreme 6/1, Bugonia 14/1, No Other Choice 20/1, Blue Moon 50/1, Nouvelle Vague 50/1.

Best Director – Motion Picture

One Battle After Another is the odds-on favourite for this accolade, albeit its 1/3 odds suggest success is not a penalty-kick. It Was Just an Accident has four award nominations, and the bookies believe its director, Jafar Panahi, gives the movie its best shot of collecting a Globe.

Jafar Panahi, 4/1, has received major prizes before. In May 2025, he won the Palme d’Or – the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival – for It Was Just an Accident.

Betting: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) 1/3, Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident) 4/1, Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) 11/2, Ryan Coogler (Sinners) 22/1, Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value) 22/1, Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein) 50/1.

Best Actor – Motion Picture (Drama)

The Cannes, Zurich, and Chicago Film Festivals are among those that have already given Brazilian actor Wagner Moura their ‘Best Actor’ award for his role in The Secret Agent. Michael B. Jordan has been bestowed with gongs from two US festivals and the Critics’ Choice Super Awards for his dual roles as criminal twin brothers in the box office hit, Sinners.

Moura and Jordan dominate the betting, but as the IMDb website points out, Dwayne Johnson has an exceptional record in TV and film awards, having collected 24 wins and accolades from 84 nominations across various award bodies. These stats suggest his 12/1 price is generous.

Betting: Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) 8/15, Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) 9/4, Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine) 12/1, Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere) 12/1, Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams) 20/1, Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein) 25/1,

Best Actress – Motion Picture (Drama)

Irish actress Jessie Buckley has an Oscar and three BAFTA nominations on her CV, but she has never given a winner’s acceptance speech at a major awards ceremony. Her 1/6 odds suggest that will change in 2026, starting with a Golden Globe and then with an Oscar (currently trading on 2/5 odds) courtesy of her role in Hamnet.

Betting: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) 1/6, Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) 5/1, Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love) 10/1, Julia Roberts (After the Hunt) 20/1, Tessa Thompson (Hedda) 40/1, Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby) 50/1.

Best Actor – Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)

Like Jessie Buckley, American-French actor Timothée Chalamet has already had a handful of major award nominations. 2026 will be his fifth visit to the Globes, and it appears to be his best chance to collect an award. He is a clear favourite to succeed this time.

Critics love Chalamet’s role in the sports comedy-drama Marty Supreme, a film loosely inspired by American table tennis player Marty Reisman. However, only critics have seen the movie, as it will not be on general release until Christmas Day!

Betting: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) 4/7, Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) 5/2, Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) 11/2, Lee Byunghun (No Other Choice) 16/1, George Clooney (Jay Kelly) 33/1, Jesse Plemons (Bugonia) 33/1.

Best Actress – Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)

Australian actress Rose Byrne makes a return to the Golden Globes after a 16-year absence, giving her film, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, its only Golden Globe nomination. A smash hit it is not. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You has only taken $1.3 million at box offices worldwide.

Review aggregator websites like the film a great deal and rate Byrne’s performance highly. The New York Film Critics Circle and film festivals have already given Rose Byrne their ‘Best Actress’ awards.

Market rival Emma Stone already has two Golden Globes residing in a trophy cabinet that features 69 trophies (from 195 nominations). Her movie, Bugonia, was a $50 million production, which is slowly approaching its break-even point.

Betting: Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) 8/15, Emma Stone (Bugonia) 5/2, Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another) 8/1, Cynthia Erivo (Wicked: For Good) 16/1, Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue) 20/1, Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee) 20/1.

Is Overseas Secret Agent a 7/1 Find?

The betting suggests One Battle After Another would appear poised to collect the most Golden Globes with its nine nominations predicted to convert into three or four awards. No film is expected to replicate La La Land, which won all seven Golden Globes for which it was nominated in 2016, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (won all six of its nominations) or 1976’s A Star Is Born or Gandhi (1982), which went five-for-five.

From a betting perspective, the Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language Globe often goes to an outsider. Therefore, our primary bet recommendation in this category is The Secret Agent. Given its star actor (Wagner Moura) is odds-on to collect the ‘Best Actor – Motion Picture’ award, 7/1 appears to represent excellent value.