“La La Land” is looking more and more like “La La-Zilla,” the awards season mega-monster that is crushing everything beneath its mighty tread.

The candy-colored retro musical set in the dreamy wonderland known as contemporary Los Angeles led the Golden Globe nominations as expected, scoring nods across the board just hours after it triumphed with eight wins at the star-studded Critics’ Choice Awards.

Made by the hotshot young Harvard-educated director Damien Chazelle, who is just 31, “La La Land” has been the heavy favorite to capture the Oscar for Best Picture since it debuted at both the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals around Labor Day. It continued to pick up steam with the New York Film Critics’ Circle award for Best Picture two weeks ago.

“La La Land,” with its patented Magic of the Movies™ theme — the substance of three of the last five Best Picture winners — is set on a glide path to go all the way at the Oscars.

Which is why I think it won’t. Huh? I’ll come back to that.

The Golden Globes also made news in failing to show any love for one of the year’s most breathlessly awaited films — the 40-years-in-the-making “Silence,” a Martin Scorsese epic about Christian persecution in 17th-century Japan. The ponderous, violent and mostly listless film didn’t even get the all-but-obligatory Best Director nod for Scorsese, and another slow-moving Paramount awards-bait film, “Fences,” didn’t do particularly well either.

“Fences” star Denzel Washington was left off the Best Director list and the film didn’t score a Best Picture nomination either. Washington and co-star Viola Davis were shoo-ins to be nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, though, and didn’t disappoint in those categories.

Voters didn’t fail to notice the trove of acclaimed films about black life, giving a Best Picture (Drama) nomination to “Moonlight,” which also received nods for its screenplay, score, director Barry Jenkins and supporting players Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris. Ruth Negga, the star of “Loving,” and Octavia Spencer, for “Hidden Figures,” also received acting nominations, suggesting that last year’s all-white slate of nominees for acting Oscars won’t be repeated this year.

“La La Land” led with seven Golden Globe nominations and will get the most Oscar nods because it’s a splashy, visual musical — meaning it’ll get noticed in a slew of technical categories.

But here are three reasons why it might not win Best Picture.

Early frontrunners hardly ever go all the way for the same reason the horse leading at the first turn of the Kentucky Derby hardly ever wins.

Awards season is long. It’s been the clear leader for three months already, and early frontrunners hardly ever go all the way for the same reason the horse leading at the first turn of the Kentucky Derby hardly ever wins. People get bored with the inevitable. At the endless rounds of cocktail parties, talk starts to turn to, “Is it really that good, though?”

(2) Lately the Oscars have shown increasing interest in spreading the love by splitting the Best Picture and Best Director honors, with the more visually dazzling film (“Gravity,” “The Revenant”)” taking the latter honors while the more thematically weighty option (“12 Years a Slave,” “Spotlight”) takes Best Picture.

With its visual dazzle, “La La Land” is certain to take the Best Director Oscar, but Best Picture could easily go to the small, sober and perfect “Manchester by the Sea,” a choice that would be difficult to fault. “Manchester” is also an awards-season heavyweight, with Casey Affleck scooping up baskets of honors already for his lead turn as a grieving handyman fighting off his demons. Affleck, supporting actress Michelle Williams and the film also received Golden Globe nominations, which earned mentions for Kenneth Lonergan’s writing and directing too.

Which brings me to the third reason (3) “Manchester” could go all the way at the Oscars: It would be a better story. Lonergan, a rumpled, complicated figure, is the opposite of wonder boy Chazelle. He has battled personal demons and been through the movie wringer, notably the 16-year period that followed his acclaimed 2000 film “You Can Count on Me.” In that time he was able to make only one film, the sprawling New York drama “Margaret,” which sat on a shelf for six years after Lonergan shot it in 2005 and was finally dumped into a few theaters in a chopped-up version he disavowed, preferring a three-hour cut that was acclaimed by critics when it finally emerged on DVD.

Lonergan is weathered but enduring. He has suffered. For his film to win Best Picture would be even more of a Hollywood ending than the Hollywood ending in the film about Hollywood.

See the rest of the nominations here.