Who’ll be making headlines in 2016? Our predictions for the year ahead

IT’S been the year of Waleed Aly, Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner. Look into our crystal ball and find out who we’ll be talking about in 2016.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 09: Bindi Irwin arrives ahead of the 5th AACTA Awards Presented by Presto at The Star on December 9, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for AFI)

IT’S been the year of Waleed Aly, Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner.

A year when Jarryd Hayne had us on tenterhooks, Belle Gibson horrified us with her fake cancer claims, and Bachelor Blake Garvey shocked the world when he dumped Sam Frost hours after the show’s finale.

But who will we all be talking about in 2016? Here are our predictions for the newsmakers of next year:

TV PERSONALITIES

Bindi Irwin won a new legion of fans in the States after winning Dancing With The Stars, and appears to have finally reached her rebellious stage. There were even rumours she got a tongue ring.

Now she’s about to turn 18, we predict this will be the year she truly comes into her own.

No matter how much we claim to be sick of them, the Kardashians are still omnipresent, and in 2016, it’s going to be Kendall Jenner’s turn to outshine the rest of her family, after Kim’s second pregnancy and Caitlin’s transition hogged the headlines in 2015. Kendall’s modelling career will go stratospheric and we expect big revelations in the dating department, too.

Sam Newman has made a habit of offending everyone on Channel Nine’s The Footy Show for years, specialising in provocative jokes that have had viewers’ complaining he’s sexist, racist and homophobic. We think he’ll finally go too far.

The ABC’s first female managing director Michelle Guthrie will be the woman to watch when she takes over from Mark Scott in May 2016. She is currently a Google executive based in Singapore. Expect high-powered life hacks of the Lean In variety.

Treasurer Scott Morrison will be in the spotlight — or should we say the firing line — when he delivers the Budget ahead of the general election.

POLITICAL PLAYERS

It’s going to be a huge year in politics, with our general election taking centre stage from the moment Treasurer Scott Morrison delivers the Budget in May.

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten will be the key players at home (because any further spills would surely be beyond parody), while we’re tipping a Hillary Clinton v Marco Rubio race in the States.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt will also take centre stage as he tries to come up with a tougher climate change policy, while Greens’ moderate new leader Richard di Natale will steal the limelight from Labor with his own views. Australia’s first female defence minister Marise Payne has earned her stripes — we think she’s going to be a face to watch.

Tony Abbott’s humiliation is not quite over. Several books will tackle his failure in 2016, and it’s going to become painfully obvious that a comeback isn’t on the cards.

TECH INNOVATORS

Space will be the catchword of 2016, as the race to discover a liveable planet and the hunt for alien life coincide. Russian Yuri Milner is leading the search for extraterrestrials, offering $1.35 million to the person who creates the best message to send into the stratosphere.

“It’s an important project for the whole of humanity,” he said. “We have the technology, we have the capability, we have the software and hardware to really try to get to the answer to this pretty fundamental question, ‘are we alone in the universe?’”

Elon Musk will remain Silicon Valley’s biggest celebrity, after investing more than $US1 billion into researching artificial intelligence, along with other tech leaders.

Lily James will go from Disney princess to acting royalty.

HOLLYWOOD’S FINEST

British starlet Lily James is about to find worldwide acclaim after wrapping up the last season of Downton Abbey and a part in Disney’s Cinderella. She’ll be appearing in BBC First’s Harvey Weinstein-produced War and Peace, spy movie The Kaiser’s Last Kiss and action comedy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Girls star Adam Driver will become bigger news following media attention from his role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with the actor appearing in Midnight Special with Kirsten Dunst Martin Scorsese’s Silence and Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson.

Scott Eastwood (son of Clint) will star in several big films this year, including Oliver Stone’s Snowden with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley then DC Entertainment’s Suicide Squad, which is likely to keep Margot Robbie’s flame burning brightly, too.

Katherine Waterston has been steadily growing her career with roles in Inherent Vice, Steve Jobs and Law and Order. She’s about to take off in JK Rowling’s new movie outing Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

It’s finally going to be Leonardo DiCaprio’s year at the Oscars. He’s been waiting since his 1993 nomination for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? for a taste of victory, and we think The Revenant could get him over the line.

SMALL SCREEN STARS

It’s going to be a great year for television. Jessica Mauboy will be a hit in Seven’s feel-good musical drama The Secret Daughter, as a part-time indigenous country pub singer who meets a wealthy city hotelier.

Jessica Marais will star in Ten’s romantic comedy The Wrong Girl, which has Secret Life of Us writer Judi McCrossin on board.

Foxtel’s murder mystery The Kettering Incident, slated as Australia’s answer to Broadchurch or Top of the Lake, will catapult Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) into the limelight.

Tessa Thompson, who came to the world’s attention in boxing film Creed, will cement her status in HBO’s highly-anticipated thriller Westworld withAnthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood.

Emory Cohen from The Place Beyond The Pines will appear romancing Saiorse Ronan in Brooklyn, then Brad Pitt’s Netflix satire War Machine, plus teen flick Hot Summer Nights and Vincent-N-Roxxy.

Aussie singer Troye Sivan is about to have the world at his feet.

SINGING SENSATIONS

Our money’s on Australian YouTube sensation Troye Sivan to make waves across the world — he’s breaking LA as we speak after gaining a gigantic following thanks to hits like Wild, his good looks and honest videos about coming out.

Canadian singer-songwriter Alessia Cara has a top ten hit in the US with Here and her debut full length album also hit the top ten just a few weeks ago.

British pop singer Jess Glynne has racked up five number one hits faster than any other woman in history in the UK, and featured on the Clean Bandit hit Rather Be, which went top ten and won her a Grammy.

Ty Dolla $ign, Zhu and Rudimental have already made their names, but according to Pandora, 2016 will be the year that they break the mainstream.

Adele will continue to reign supreme, with her first tour since 2011 kicking off in Belfast in February, and tickets rumoured to have a resale value of thousands of dollars.

It’s also going to be a big year for Rihanna, as the Barbadian singer releases her long-awaited Anti album and headlines London’s Wembley Stadium in June.

SPORT

It’s Olympics year, so all eyes will be on Brazil. Aussie swimmer Mitch Larkin is one of our best bets for gold in Rio, after winning two gold medals at the World Championships in the backstroke this year.

Melbourne teenager Ben Simmons is earmarked as the next LeBron James, expected to go No. 1 in next year’s NBA Draft. Even Andrew Bogut — arguably Australia’s greatest ever hoops star, and a former No. 1 pick himself — predicts Simmons will be the finest player this country has ever produced.

Kiwi batsman Kane Williamson has impressed throughout the series against Australia this year, and his calm confidence should take him far ahead of his rivals in 2016 to be the best in the world.

It could be a huge year for Nick Kyrgios if he learns to control his emotions on the court, with a big chance at getting through to the later rounds at Wimbledon. Whatever happens, it’s sure to be a rollercoaster ride.