Leonardo DiCaprio may be on the road to his first Oscar after winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor Comedy/Musical.
The actor surprised pundits after many believed that the winner of the award would be Bruce Dern for his performance in "Nebraska." However, that movie was completely shut out at the Golden Globes.
DiCaprio's performance for "The Wolf of Wall Street" has garnered a lot of buzz over the past few weeks especially after garnering the BAFTA nomination. However, he was omitted from the Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild nominations. These two key nominations are important because most Oscar winners must win these two awards before taking home the Oscar.
The SAG omission was due to the fact that Guild was not able to see the movie. Meanwhile, the Critics Choice only nominated DiCaprio for the Best Comedy actor award.
However DiCaprio's Golden Globe win may be more significant. Last year Christoph Waltz won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor without getting nominated for awards at the SAG or Critics Choice. He later went on to win the BAFTA and later the Oscar.
DiCaprio may follow the same path. The actor has garnered three Oscar nominations throughout his career and many pundits are calling his performance in "The Wolf of Wall Street" the best of his career. Additionally, many pundits believe he is overdue to win and as a result, that can influence the Academy's ultimate decision.
Over the past years, many winners have won because the Academy felt they were overdue. Such winners include Martin Scorsese ("The Departed"), Kate Winslet ("The Reader") and Meryl Streep ("The Iron Lady").
"The Wolf of Wall Street" is currently one of the most popular movies at the U.S. box office. After having scored mixed reviews with audiences, the film is on track to scoring $100 million and becoming one of the most successful R-rated movies of 2013.