LOS ANGELES - Hollywood's best and brightest from film and television will hit the red carpet Sunday for the Golden Globes, the year's first major showbiz awards gala, with surreal narco-musical "Emilia Perez" leading the movie pack.
The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals, widening the field of movie stars in contention -- and thus highlighting more performances for Academy voters, who will soon cast ballots for the Oscar nominations.
French director Jacques Audiard's genre-defying film about a Mexican drug lord who transitions to life as a woman, which first made waves at the Cannes festival last year, earned 10 nominations -- the most ever for a comedy/musical.
"Emilia Perez" -- which is almost entirely in Spanish -- is hoping a big night at the Globes, which are seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards, could propel it to Oscars success in early March.
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.
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 -- as an example.
It will do battle for best drama film with "Conclave," a fictionalised account of high-stakes Vatican horse-trading, depicting how the death of a pope sends the church's various factions into battle for its future.
Beyond the two favourites, others vying for the best drama prize include Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown," sci-fi epic "Dune: Part Two," 1960s reform school tale "Nickel Boys" and 1972 Munich Olympics thriller "September 5."
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.