LOS ANGELES - Hollywood's awards season heats up on Sunday at the Golden Globes, with surreal narco-thriller musical "Emilia Perez" -- about a Mexican drug lord who transitions to life as a woman -- leading the charge.
Jacques Audiard's genre-defying film earned 10 nominations, the most ever for a musical or comedy film, including for star transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who plays the title character, as well as co-stars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana.
"Emilia Perez" -- which is almost entirely in Spanish -- is hoping to throw down the gauntlet in the race to the Academy Awards, which will take place in early March.
"The far and away favourite here going in has got to be 'Emilia Perez'," Deadline awards columnist Pete Hammond told AFP.
"I think it's got the international thing going for it, and it just swept the European Film Awards."
The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals -- widening the field of stars who will walk the red carpet, and also offering more options for Academy voters set to soon cast ballots for the Oscar nominations.
It will compete for top musical-comedy honours with smash hit "Wicked," Cannes darling "Anora," tennis love-triangle film "Challengers," Jesse Eisenberg's "A Real Pain," and body horror film "The Substance" starring Demi Moore.
Hammond said he believed "Wicked" would be at a "disadvantage" at the Globes, given its lack of nominations in key categories, but he favours Cynthia Erivo to take home the prize for best lead actress.
She will compete with Gascon, "Anora" star Mikey Madison, Amy Adams ("Nightbitch"), Moore and "Challengers" star Zendaya.
Hammond calls "The Substance" his dark horse of the season, and says its message about the perils of aging in Hollywood could resonate with voters.
Now under new ownership, and with the HFPA disbanded, organisers are hoping to capitalise on a ratings bump registered last January, and perhaps even burnish the gala's status as a predictor of Oscars success.
Hammond says the reorganisation shines through with nominees like "The Brutalist," starring Oscar winner Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States.
The Globes are "definitely more international. They're more open to different kinds of movies," he said, citing "The Brutalist" -- which earned seven nominations, behind "Emilia Perez" -- as an example.
It will do battle with papal drama "Conclave," a fictionalised account of high-stakes Holy See horse-trading, depicting how the death of a pope sends the church's various factions into battle for its future. It is based on a novel by Robert Harris.
The two favourites will compete for the best drama prize with Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown," sci-fi epic "Dune: Part Two," "Nickel Boys," and "September 5," a look at the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis from the media perspective.
The Globes also honour the best in television, with comedy "The Bear" earning five nominations, and historical epic "Shogun" and comedy "Only Murders in the Building" tied at four.