Now that we are in 2017, the award season has officially begun. This was kicked off on Sunday, January 8th with the Golden Globe Awards. This honors the best in film and television, but with the Oscar nominations being announced on January 24th, this award ceremony was a crucial part of who is getting nominated for the Academy Awards.

The Golden Globes branches out into two categories of film- Drama and Comedy/Musical. The Comedy/Musical category was obviously dominated by "La La Land." It was nominated for a total of six Golden Globes, and won in every category, including Best Comedy/Musical film. This is very impressive and is very telling for the Oscars race. It is the clear favorite to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and I can also see it winning Best Director, Best Score, and Best Original Song, among other awards it could possibly be nominated for.

As for the acting categories, there were two winners for the Drama category, and two winners for Comedy/Musical. There were also Best Supporting Actor and Actress, but they were combined between the two categories. For the Comedy/Musical category, those were won by the two leading roles in "La La Land," Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. For Drama, Casey Affleck won for "Manchester by the Sea" and Isabelle Hupert won for the French film "Elle." For the supporting roles, Viola Davis won for "Fences" and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for "Nocturnal Animals."

I have my predictions set up for the Leading Actor and Actress category for the Oscars, this is what I think:

Best Actor: Casey Affleck ("Manchester by the Sea"), Ryan Gosling ("La La Land"), Denzel Washington ("Fences"), Andrew Garfield ("Hacksaw Ridge"), Joel Edgerton ("Loving").

Best Actress: Emma Stone ("La La Land"), Amy Adams ("Arrival"), Meryl Streep ("Florence Foster Jenkins"), Isabelle Hupert ("Elle"), Natalie Portman ("Jackie").

I personally think Casey Affleck is a shoe-in to the Oscar for Best Actor with his emotional performance in "Manchester by the Sea." Ryan Gosling could give him a race, but I am pretty positive the Oscar is going to Affleck and righteously so. The race for Best Actress is a more competitive race. Amy Adams has been nominated for five Oscars and has never won, and she gave a great performance in the film "Arrival." I personally would like to see Natalie Portman or Emma Stone win. It is too close to pick a definite winner!

For Best Picture, I definitely think "La La Land" has great potential of winning the biggest award of the night. However, "Moonlight" won the Golden Globe for Best Film- Drama. Personally, I would rather see "Moonlight" win Best Picture, it was a beautiful film and I predict that Mahershala Ali will win Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. But it isn't that likely with all of the buzz and success around "La La Land."

Keep an eye out, the SAG Awards and the BAFTA Awards are approaching, which can also influence the Oscars race. The big night is February 26th, we will see what happens from now until then!