The Golden Globes they can be redeemed. This Tuesday night, at the ceremony of the 80th edition which marked the return to television of the awards of the problematic Hollywood Foreign Press Association after a year exiled for its ethical, financial and lack of diversity controversies, the awards and the gala have recovered their meaning.
Between party, rivers of champagne and glamor in it Beverly Hilton of Los Angelesand despite some absences, an authentic meteor shower has celebrated film and television. And the list of winners has been dominated in the drama category by ‘The Fabelmans’ by Steven Spielbergalso awarded as directorand in comedy or musical by ‘Inisherin’s Banshees’, which has won the screenplay award for Martin McDonald and that of interpretation to Colin Farrel. On television the big winners have been ‘Abbott College’, ‘The House of the Dragon’ and ‘The White Lotus’.
on the night that ‘Argentine 1985’ it has won the prize as a non-English language film, it has also won a statuette Guillermo del Toro, that with the prize for his’pinocchio‘ en las manos has joked about alcohol (“some of us are drunk, what could be better”) and, seriously, has claimed that “animation is cinema, it is not a genre for children”.
There have also been awards for cate blanchett for his performance in ‘Tár’ and for michelle yeoh for ‘Everything at once everywhere’ and for Austin Butlerthe ‘Elvis‘ under the baton of Baz Luhrman.
in search of audience
In the absence of knowing the audiences of the broadcast, which have been in decline for some time for all award ceremonies, the Globes can consider their goal of having repositioned themselves this year as one of the must-see events in Hollywood in their awards season fulfilled, perhaps until even putting back the inappropriate label of “prelude to the Oscars”.
no one has forgotten the trouble and corrupt them from the group of international journalists who had always known each other but were forcefully exposed in 2021 by the ‘Los Angeles Times’, causing the boycott of Hollywood and the banishment of television. but after reforms in its operation and in its composition (with six new black members and opening voting to more than a hundred non-members adding gender and racial diversity), and with Hollywood eager for publicity and trying to bring more people to movie theaters, clearly the punishment has been lifted.
“I am here because I am black”
Not that a thick veil has been drawn over the problematic history of the Globes. In fact, Jerrod Carmichael, the comedian who was entrusted with the presentation of the gala (and the first black with that function in 80 editions of the Globes), has opened it with one of his typical monologues, built more with a philosophical observation of life than with jokes. And his first sentence has left no doubt as to what he wanted to convey. I’m here because I’m black”, he released, shortly after adding: “I will not say that they were a racist organization, but they did not have a single black member until George Floyd died“, in 2020.
Carmichael has also told an anecdote of the attempts of the president of the HFPA to meet with him to “educate” him about the changes that the organization has made, a meeting that he resisted, convinced that it was “unmissable”. And spoken in his monologue of moral dilemma of accepting to lead the gala, but he took the opportunity to remember that in the end at the Globes, as in Hollywood and in so many other places, something different is in order. “Everybody we live under the mentality of taking the money“, said. And she explained that he was convinced Half a million dollars.
The winners
Despite that cloud that still hangs over the Globes, it has felt as if it were dissipating for a good part of the more than three hours of ceremony, especially in the face of some of the most exciting and fun moments. And those have starred winners like yeahwho has claimed his figure as immigrant and 60 year old woman and has exposed the racism of Hollywood (“it was a dream until I arrived”).
Also exciting has been the speech of his co-star in ‘Everything at once everywhere’ Ke Huy Quanwho has thanked Spielberg for giving him his first chance in ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’. And glorious in its playful portrayal of perseverance and its thanks to creator Mike White has been Jennifer Coolidge, awarded for her supporting work in ‘The White Lotus’.
The efforts of the Globes to remake itself and open its voting to more varied members have also beat in other awards and in the diverse track recordin which it appears Angela Bassett for his supporting work in ‘Black Panther. Wakanda Foreverr’. She felt herself in the honorary awards to Eddie Murphy and the television creator Ryan Murphy, that he has included in his speech messages of support for young people in the LGBTQ community (and then he has seen his latest work recognized: ‘Monster: the Jeffrey Dahmer story’). And perhaps one of the greatest exponents and surprises has been the prize for best songwhere ‘Naatu Naatu’, from the Indian blockbuster ‘RRR‘, has won songs by Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift.
