Related Posts
Source: The Guardian
The most recent Golden Globes ceremony, held on Sunday, February 28th, was already destined to be an awards show unlike any held in the past. Much of this is the result of the ongoing COVID-19, which not forced the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the Golden Globes ceremony, to push the date back by over a month, but it has also made a conventional ceremony where all the major nominees get together at one specific location less feasible due to the risk of further disease spread. Instead, the plan for the 78th Golden Globes went for a bicoastal format, with one of its hosts, Amy Poehler, speaking live from the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California (where most of the previous Golden Globes ceremonies have been held), and the other, Tina Fey, hosting live from the Rainbow Room in New York City. Even then, not all the nominees and winners were able to appear at those locations, with many presenting or accepting their awards from the safety of their homes via video call. This is certainly not a conventional means of staging an awards ceremony, and the event was not without its various technical glitches. Still, the show went on as planned, and by the end of the night, each of the awards had been handed out, some of which helped make history for the nearly eighty-year old ceremony.
Of the major films to take home the ceremony’s most prestigious prizes, it was “Nomadland” that proved to be superior among the more dramatic contenders. Not only was the film given the title of Best Motion Picture – Drama, but its director, Chloe Zhao, received the honor of Best Director. This one of the few times this specific award has gone to a female director, and it’s the very first instance of a woman of Asian descent receiving this award. On the comedy side of the categories, it was “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”, the sequel to the 2006 mockumentary “Borat”, that took home the award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, with its chief creative, writer/director/leading actor Sacha Baron Cohen being given the award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. With two wins each, “Nomadland” and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”, as well as the Disney/Pixar film “Soul” (which won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score), ended up tying for the most awards given to a single film that evening.
Equally significant in terms of history being made were the wins for the dramatic acting categories. For her role in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”, Andra Day received the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the late Chadwick Boseman, for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, was awarded Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. This is one of the few times in which both categories went to black actors (especially in the same year), and with Daniel Kaluuya winning Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance in “Judas and the Black Messiah”, the percentage of acting awards going to black actors has been among the highest percentages of any Golden Globes ceremony.
Not every Golden Globe win was without controversy, however. The most notable of this is the award for Best Foreign Language Film, which had been handed out to the Korean-language film “Minari”. The controversy lies not within the film itself, which has received almost universal acclaim since its premiere, but rather how it has been deemed a “foreign film” due to its dialogue being predominantly Korean despite the film being made in the United States. This has resulted in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to receive accusations of racism, which claim the organization recognizes the film as “foreign” (i.e. un-American) due to most of its dialogue being in a language other than English. The lack of nominations in any of the other categories, which went predominantly to more “domestic” films, has only further demonstrated the “otherness” the organization has seemingly placed on the film.
Another major talking point of this year’s Golden Globes was the overwhelming presence of streaming services and their nominated films, although the proportions of nominations and wins for a given studio did not turn out as some may have anticipated. Despite having more nominations overall of any studio, Netflix only ended up receiving four of the fourteen Golden Globes for film: Chadwick Boseman’s aforementioned win, Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy (Rosamund Pike for “I Care a Lot”), Best Screenplay (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), and Best Original Song (“Seen” from “The Life Ahead”). This is a decent number, but nowhere near as impressive as it could have been considering how many nominations Netflix had earned throughout all the categories. It’s even more surprising considering that two of its films, “Mank” and “The Trial of the Chicago”, were the most nominated films of the ceremony (the former receiving six nominations, the latter receiving five), yet only “The Trial of the Chicago” received a single award that evening, whereas “Mank”, despite having more Golden Globe nominations of any film, went home empty-handed.
With the Golden Globes having finally come and gone, most of Hollywood is rushing to see how this ceremony will influence the upcoming Academy Awards. At the moment, “Nomadland” and director Chloe Zhao, with its Best Picture and Best Director wins, seems to be the frontrunner. Then again, the winners of both categories of the previous year were “1917” and director Sam Mendes, only to lose the same Academy Awards to Bong Joon-ho and his film “Parasite”. In fact, many Golden Globe winners in recent memory failed to repeat their success at the Golden Globes, so “Nomadland” being named Best Picture at the Oscars should not be treated as a given fact. Still, its achievements so far are still worthy of praise, and even if its success is not completely guaranteed, it still has a chance to make history, as are the many other films and filmmakers who still have the potential for a major awards win in the future. In any case, seeing where awards season goes from here, especially considering what has happened so far, will most certainly be an interesting watch.
