Golden Globe Winner Predictions: Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical

The competition: Matt Damon’s slippery tattletale (The Informant!), Daniel Day-Lewis’ eccentric director (Nine), Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes), Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s hopeless romantic (500 Days of Summer), and Michael Stuhlbarg’s helpless professor (A Serious Man).

For your information: This is Day-Lewis’s sixth nomination, and he won on the las one. Downey Jr. has two previous film nominations, and Damon has three acting nods, including another one this year for supporting actor in “Invictus.” Both have won Globes before; Downey Jr. for “Ally McBeal” and Damon for penning “Good Will Hunting.” This is the first nomination for both Gordon-Levitt and Stuhlbarg.

Who should win: All fun inclusions – probably Stuhlbarg.

Who will win: This is the hardest race of all to predict, in my opinion. Day-Lewis should be a favorite, but he’s not the strongest part of his film. This could be a way to acknowledge Downey Jr.’s recent comeback, and Gordon-Levitt has also done well for himself recently after starting out as a TV child actor. Damon might also prevail here, especially since he won’t for Best Supporting Actor. My bet is that Tony nominee Stuhlbarg will come out ahead, though his film’s snub in the Best Picture category doesn’t bode well for him.