The Golden Globes are a strange event. It is the product of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which was founded long ago by a group of journalists eager to monopolize the insider news of Hollywood. What better way to gain favor with the community than awarding them golden statues? Thus the Golden Globes were born.

Seventy years later, this group has remained small and mysterious with under one hundred journalists. Comparatively, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is comprised of almost six thousand members of the film industry and is considered a more legitimate gauge of merit in the community. Still, the Globes are certainly an indicator of things to come in the awards season and are often consistent with who takes home an Oscar.

Here’s what we learned:

Best Picture is up for grabs

Lincoln received the most nominations, Argo won for Best Drama, and Les Mis won for Best Musical/Comedy. Zero Dark Thirty looked like the front-runner around Christmas, but it has been bogged down by controversy over its torture scenes. Silver Linings Playbook received Oscar nods in all four acting categories (the first time since 1981) and now looks like a contender in its own right. It’s anybody’s trophy!

Best Supporting Actor, ditto

Leonardo DiCaprio won for Django Unchained with the National Board of Review but wasn’t nominated for an Oscar. Christopher Waltz (also Django) just took the prize at the Globes. Phillip Seymour Hoffman (The Master) won with the critics and Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), the supposed front-runner, has not won a thing. I propose a boxing match. Winner? Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook, Raging Bull*).

The Academy owes Ben Affleck an apology

His directorial effort in Argo picked up Best Picture and Best Director at both the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards, but the guy didn’t even get nominated for an Oscar. He and Argo are receiving a groundswell of support from Hollywood right now, but without him in the Oscar race, the trophy just got slow-pitched to Spielberg  for Lincoln.

It’s going to be a showdown for Best Actress

The Globes split their leading actor awards between drama and musical/comedy. Favorites in both respective categories, Jessica Chastian (Zero Dark Thirty) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) won gold, thereby setting up an Oscar rivalry. These two have a few weeks to plug their performances before Academy votes go in. Watch for them on talk shows everywhere.

To the people who engrave the Oscars

Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Best Original Song: Adele, Skyfall

Everybody likes Homeland and God likes Don Cheadle

Not technically Oscar buzz, but TV’s Homeland was a heavy favorite and rightfully swept the Globes, as it has at various ceremonies in the past year. Everybody likes Homeland. Then Don Cheadle won for House of Lies. Nobody likes House of Lies, but it looks as if God likes Don Cheadle.

Info courtesy of Golden Globes.com, Oscar.go.com, and Critic’s Choice.com