Actors Emma Stone (left) and Ryan Gosling attend their hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre on December 7 Juanfran Atletico Madrid Jersey , 2016 in Hollywood, California. Photo: CFP Hollywood's elite hits the red carpet on Sunday for the Golden Globes, launching a fiercely-contested awards season that looks set to reward escapist fantasy and gritty drama in equal measure.
The Globes has a reputation for delighting in its eccentric picks so its record in predicting Oscars glory has been patchy over the years, but it is a huge draw for the stars and remains for many a solid bellwether for Academy Awards success.
Leading the pack of films vying for top honors is Damien Chazelle's La La Land Jose Gimenez Atletico Madrid Jersey , a tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals set in modern-day Los Angeles.
It picked up seven nominations, and pundits see it as the overwhelming favorite for best comedymusical film, ahead of 20th Century Women, Deadpool Jan Oblak Atletico Madrid Jersey , Florence Foster Jenkins and Sing Street.
La La Land is also in a strong position to pick up awards for its stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, best director for Chazelle and best score and song, according to a poll of experts by awards website Gold Derby.
Placing bets
"La La Land could win all of its categories. It's either the frontrunner or in second place, I believe Guilherme Siqueira Atletico Madrid Jersey , in all seven. The safest for them are comedymusical best picture, Emma Stone and for score," Gold Derby managing director Chris Beachum told AFP.
"They could win for Gosling, director and song but the Globes voters tend to want to spread things out more than that. You don't generally see a movie winning more than three or four."
Barry Jenkins's coming-of-age tale Moonlight Gabi Atletico Madrid Jersey , with six nominations including for the director and cast members Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali, has been monopolizing attention on the drama side of the contest.
Another frontrunner is Kenneth Lonergan's unflinching Manchester by the Sea, which earned the filmmaker nods for best directing and screenplay while Casey Affleck is a favorite for best actor and Michelle Williams vies for best supporting actress.
Gold Derby's experts have it just ahead of Moonlight as favorite for best dramatic motion picture, with Mel Gibson's war movie Hacksaw Ridge Filipe Luis Atletico Madrid Jersey , heist thriller Hell or High Water and family drama Lion rounding out the category.
"On our website it's razor thin. Our experts go with Manchester but if you combine all people voting and predicting, it's slightly in favor of Moonlight," said Beachum.
"It's a very tight race. I think both will win a couple of awards."
'A chintzier affair'
For best actress in a drama, Natalie Portman is expected to pick up the award for her intense Fernando Torres Atletico Madrid Jersey , critically-acclaimed turn as Jackie Kennedy in Jackie, which chronicles the days immediately following John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination.
On the television side, FX true crime anthology The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story is expected to enjoy a winning night with five nominations.
AMC crime drama The Night Manager will be close behind, with four nominations Diego Godin Atletico Madrid Jersey , while Black-ish, The Crown, The Night Of, This is Us and Westworld have three each.
Hollywood A-listers Drew Barrymore Diego Costa Atletico Madrid Jersey , Sylvester Stallone and Reese Witherspoon will add glitz to the annual party as awards presenters while host Jimmy Fallon is seen as a safe pair of hands compared with another Globes regular, caustic British comedian Ricky Gervais.
"The Globes are always a slightly chintzier affair when compared to the Oscars or the Emmys," wrote Jack Mirkinson, an editor at US pop culture website Fusion.
"But they're often way more fun to watch Axel Werner Atletico Madrid Jersey , especially because all the stars involved get progressively drunker as the night goes on."
"
BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- A two-day international seminar on the right to development concluded Monday, urging continued global commitment to offering equal opportunities for development and sharing its benefits.
At the seminar marking the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations' ""Declaration on the Right to Development,"" participants agreed that peace and development remain the dominant themes in today's world.
The fundamental cause of poverty, the refugee crisis, conflicts, war, terrorism and extremism lies in underdevelopment, and solutions to all these problems must be sought through development, they said.
More than 150 representatives from over 40 countries, regions and international organizations attended the event.
They called on governments to continue to improve conditions to facilitate the development of all nations and individuals so that all people can pursue personal development with dignity, contribute to society and share opportunities to achieve their full potential and dreams.
The North-South gap in economic development is still very wide, attendees said, calling on the international community to make poverty and hunger elimination its primary task, tackle imbalances in development and promote sustainable development.
Development is the eternal theme of human society, and the right to development is a universal and inalienable human right, according to proposals made during the seminar, which was co-hosted by the State Council Information Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
""All countries have the responsibility to implement their right to development on the state and international level. They should accomplish development based on equality and non-discrimination principles,"" said Zamir Akram, chair-rapporteur of the Working Group on the Right to Development at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Akram added that all countries should reduce poverty domestically and around the world through cooperation with the international community.