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With spotty Wi-Fi, delayed sound, and chaos at Zoom, the 78th Golden Globes ceremony was a semi-virtual ceremony once again dominated by British stars but marred by technical difficulties and renewed scrutiny over the lack of diversity of the awards.
A year after Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag and Sam Mendes’ 1917 led a near-British invasion of the Globes, Netflix’s prestigious royal family drama The Crown won the award for best television drama series along with a series of acting awards for her Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor), Princess Diana (Emma Corrin) and Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson).
The night began with wins for two black British stars as best supporting actors in film and television: Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah, and John Boyega in Steve McQueen’s Small Ax, two victories that highlighted animation technology and fighting for the diversity of the night. Kaluuya’s speech was all but abandoned due to mic issues (“You’re messing me up!” He said as the Globes cut off and then backed off), while Boyega’s excitement seeped through to faulty sound.
The victories also underscored growing outrage over the Golden Globes governing body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), following two Los Angeles Times investigations into the island’s lack of diversity (the group of 87 members does not include black members) and allegations of ethical neglect, self-treatment, and financial dishonesty.
The evening marked another triumphant year for Netflix: The Queen’s Gambit, the streamer’s most-watched miniseries to date, took home first prize for limited series and star Anya Taylor-Joy earned its first Golden Globe. as ubiquitous as The Crown, which won three more awards, bringing its Globe total to six.
“You have taught me compassion and empathy beyond measure,” Corrin said in her speech, thanking the real Princess Diana. O’Connor, meanwhile, urged the public to “collectively put mental health at the forefront of our minds.”
On the comedy side, the final season of Schitt’s Creek harnessed its wave of Emmy dominance to win best series and best actress for Catherine O’Hara.
Baron Cohen took home top comedy film awards for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, his sequel to the 2006 hit comedy about a flamboyant Kazakh journalist traveling the United States that made headlines for a controversial bedroom scene involving the Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. “Donald Trump is contesting the results … he is claiming that a lot of dead people voted, which is very rude to say about the HFPA,” Baron Cohen joked in his best actor speech.
For the first time in Golden Globe history, the majority of best director nominations were women: Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, Regina King for One Night in Miami and winner Chloé Zhao for Nomadland.
Nomadland, a generous observation film about older Americans displaced by the recession to mobile homes along the way, also won best drama film, a significant win for a director whose first two films were ardently non-commercial independent projects.
“Nomadland at its core to me is a pilgrimage through pain and healing,” Zhao said, accepting, like all the other stars, from a living room in Zoom. “So for everyone who has been through this difficult journey at some point in their lives, this is for you.”
The award for best actor in a drama went to the late Chadwick Boseman, whose death in August at age 43 from colon cancer shocked the industry, for his latest on-screen role in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In an emotional speech, his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, said the Black Panther star “would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice inside all of us that tells you you can, that tells you to go ahead.” .
There were also big wins for Rosamund Pike for best actress in a comedy for I Care A Lot and Andra Day for best actress in a drama for The United States vs. Billie Holliday.
The report that the HFPA, whose event marks the beginning of Hollywood’s awards season and has great influence in the industry, does not have a single black member drew widespread criticism ahead of the ceremony, particularly in light of slights to black-led television series (I May Destroy You) and supporting films (Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and One Night in Miami). Several industry stars, including Ava DuVernay, Shonda Rhimes, Amy Schumer, Sterling K Brown and Judd Apatow, tweeted convictions under the hashtag #TimesUpGlobes with a graphic from Time’s Up, the Hollywood organization formed in the wake of #MeToo, calling for a HFPA reform. .
The tension did not go unnoticed by the evening’s hosts, comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who returned for their fourth round after a stretch in 2013-15. Standing side by side on a nationwide splitscreen (Fey in New York, Poehler in Los Angeles), the duo headed to packed rooms (in accordance with Covid security protocols) with essential workers and professionals from health rather than the usual megawatt celebrities.
The two took their usual light-hearted remarks at the awards show and the false hierarchy of cinema versus television, before acknowledging the HFPA controversy. “It’s understandable that everyone is upset with the HFPA and its elections,” Poehler said. “Look, a lot of garbage garbage was nominated, but that happens, okay? That’s his thing. But a number of black actors and black-led projects were overlooked. “
“We all know that award shows are stupid,” Fey said, but “even with stupid things, inclusion is important.” On the lack of black members, Fey spoke directly to the HFPA: “Maybe you didn’t get the memo because your workplace is the back of a French McDonald’s, but you have to change that.”
The HFPA leadership also briefly addressed criticism on stage. “We have our own work to do … we must have black journalists in our organization,” said a German member. Another echoed the association’s statement to the Times earlier this week, saying the association hoped for “a more inclusive future.”
Criticism of the HFPA’s lack of diversity ran throughout the night, from comedic comments (“Thank you to the all-white Hollywood foreign press,” Sacha Baron Cohen said, accepting the best Borat Subsequent Moviefilm motion picture comedy) to serious calls for reform. Actress, activist and Hollywood legacy legend Jane Fonda accepted the Cecil B DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement with an appeal to industry leaders to support diverse storytelling.
“[There’s] a story that we have been afraid to see and hear about ourselves in this industry, ”he said. “A story about the voices we respect and exalt and those we ignore, a story about who has been offered a seat at the table and who has been kept out of the decision-making rooms.
Fonda asked Hollywood, “including the groups that decide who gets hired and what gets done and who wins awards,” to be leaders and “make an effort to expand that tent so that everyone gets up and everyone’s story has a chance to be seen and heard. “
Time’s Up President and CEO Tina Tchen was quick to respond to the ceremony. “The statements by the HFPA tonight and in recent days indicate a fundamental lack of understanding of the depth of the issues at hand,” he said in a letter. “Their stated version of the change is cosmetic: look for black people. That is not a solution. “
