The Golden Globes were Sunday night, and it was much different than usual because, of course, we’re still in a pandemic. Instead of an audience filled with celebrities, it was an audience filled with healthcare workers, which is a bit counterproductive because no one should be in those audiences. There was also an expectation after the Emmy’s successfully managed to do a socially distanced award show, this did not turn out quite the same. With many technical issues and awkward pauses, that didn’t end up being the only issue about it. It had recently come out that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has a complete lack of Black members. This ended up being the bud of a joke between Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in their opening monologue stating, “The HFPA is made up of around 90 internationals—no Black—journalists.” It also prompted three HFPA members to basically apologize on stage saying that they wanted to create, “an environment where diverse membership is the norm, not the exception.”
Of course, who knows if there will actually be change made within those large circles, because they could easily just be saving face. The awards managed to help mitigate that failure, somewhat, by honoring John Boyega, Pixar’s Soul, and Chadwick Boseman. However, regardless of the obvious awkwardness, the HFPA should absolutely be examined further in its inclusivity. In an earlier article that I wrote I mentioned the American movie “Minari” was categorized as a foreign language film instead of a best picture nomination because of its less than 50 percent English speaking. Especially when the story was about and created by an American and directed, filmed, set in America. Who cares what language is spoken? If it’s about Americans it shouldn’t be considered foreign. The film ended up winning its category and Lee Isaac Chung, the creator of the film, stated with his daughter on his lap:
“This one here, she’s the reason I made this film… Minari is about a family. It’s a family trying to learn how to speak a language of its own… It goes deeper than any American language and any foreign language; it’s a language of the heart.” Check out the full video of his acceptance here.
Overall, it was a night of mishaps and awkwardness, but the Globes has always been the party award show. So, “the very unseriousness that typically makes them a looser, more laid-back version of a black-tie affair also makes them look rather slight when the music stops, and the lights turn on.” With the added weight of two different ceremonies in NY and LA to zoom and the depopulated command center, “the Globes ended up with the worst of both worlds.” (Excerpt of an article from The Ringer).