Are you ready for the start of the award season? We are.
The Golden Globe has always been a peculiar ritual. The statues are delivered by a clandestine group of foreign journalists, of whom only 89 vote. The main prizes are divided into dramatic and comical categories, often in confusing ways. Strangely, foreign language films cannot compete for the most prestigious awards.
This year, however, the surreal nature of the case was exacerbated by a pandemic-era issue: The Globes are really happening?
The five nominees for best drama could easily have zero ticket sales. Almost all the films in dispute have been released online or are still waiting for release. Many cinemas have been closed for 11 months.
For many people, including some in Hollywood, it is difficult to worry about small gold trophies at a time when the coronavirus still kills more than 1,000 Americans a day. Others will undoubtedly receive the Golden Globe as a silly distraction – the trusted balm of celebrity self-involvement and schadenfreude-you-saw-that-ugly-outfit.
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will return as hosts. The ceremony is scheduled for February 28 and will be shown on NBC.
Globes ostensibly exist to honor excellence in cinema and television. But the real reason why this show should continue involves money. NBC pays the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and its production partner, Dick Clark Productions, about $ 65 million a year for the broadcast rights. About 18 million people tuned in last year.
Referrals to the globe are coveted marketing tools; studios and streaming services will quickly launch expensive ad campaigns based on the counts. For the first time since the pandemic began, the movement will have a national platform to use as a demonstration: “I’m Still Here!”
Globes can also help drive a missed Oscar race for some kind of course. (The Oscar is scheduled for April 25.) David Fincher’s “Mank” fading over Old Hollywood could have a Globe nomination or five now. Although “Elegia caipira” was widely ridiculed, voters at Globo could give Glenn Close a ride, recognizing his landscape-eating mom. (It would be his 15th nomination.)
In fact, Globes are not predictive of much. Over the past 20 years, Globo and Oscar have defined the winners of the best film 50% of the time. Last year, Globe voters chose “Once upon a time … in Hollywood” and the war drama “1917” as the best in the class. Neither won an Oscar, which recognized the revolutionary “Parasite”.
Following their rules, the group did not nominate “Parasite”, a foreign language film, for Globo as the best film.
What maddening peculiarities await this time, when the nominations are announced on Wednesday from 8:35 am Brasília time:
Streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon, will lead the way.
Netflix, just a competitor on the film side of the Globes since 2016, will dominate to a jaw-dropping degree. There are home movies up for grabs – “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Mank,” “Da 5 Bloods,” “The Prom” – as well as movies you bought from traditional pandemic studios, specifically “The Trial of o Chicago 7.” Among the television categories, the streaming service has established to please the public (“The Crown”, “Ozark”) and brilliant new hits (“Bridgerton”, “The Queen’s Gambit”).
Amazon will also receive many nominations, with Regina King’s “One Night in Miami”, a drama based on facts about a meeting of four black luminaries, positioned to receive nominations for best drama, director, script and supporting actor (for Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Sam Cooke). And voters at Globo will certainly pay tribute to “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”, which arrived on Amazon Prime Video in October, in the category of best comedy or musical, among others.
Some predictors also bet that Amazon’s irreverent series of superheroes, “The Boys”, will receive a nomination for best television drama, which would be a big deal because the popular show, now in its second season, has almost always been overlooked. by the prize groups.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been attacked in recent years for not paying attention to inclusion and diversity. At the most recent ceremony, for example, the group presented – again – a list of all-male directors, without naming women like Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Olivia Wilde (“Booksmart”).
Expect a concealer this year. It looks like King and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) will be recognized. Adding to that mix is likely to be Spike Lee for “Da 5 Bloods”. The war drama generated a strong critical response, and Lee was nominated three times by the group (most recently for directing “BlacKkKlansman”).
And this year, his sons, Satchel and Jackson, will serve as Golden Globe Ambassadors, a job that traditionally involves following winners off the stage. It wouldn’t be a family affair if Spike wasn’t there, too.
Sophia Loren and Zendaya could compete in the categories of actresses.
The best actor in a drama category can also reflect a wide range of talents, with Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Delroy Lindo (“Da 5 Bloods”), Riz Ahmed ( “Sound of Metal”) and Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”), all in the mix for nominations. Tom Hanks could rise as his “News of the World” frontier man.
But nominations for actresses are likely to make noise.
Voters across the globe may include a legend, Sophia Loren, for her role as a Holocaust survivor who runs a nursery for the children of local prostitutes on Netflix’s “The Life Ahead,”. Or they could give that spot to an actress who represents the future, Zendaya, who was praised for her performance in “Malcolm & Marie”, a romantic drama in black and white (Netflix, again).
Meryl Streep, 25 times nominated for Globo and eight times winner of Globo, could receive two nominations for best actress in a comedy or musical, one for her exaggerated performance of “Prom” and the other for playing an author trying to reconnect with friends. in “Let Them All Talk”. Streep would probably be competing with Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, for her ultra-rude, but surprisingly sweet interpretation, in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”.
The TV supporting actress category, as usual, has a plethora of candidates, which adds a minimum of suspense. Will voters make room for Gillian Anderson and Helena Bonham Carter in “The Crown”? Also competing are Uzo Aduba (“Mrs. America”), Letitia Wright (“Small Machado”), Annie Murphy (“Schitt’s Creek”), Jessie Buckley (“Fargo”), Marielle Heller (“The Queen’s Gambit”) and Julia Garner (“Ozark”). Garner and Aduba won the Emmy last year for their performances.
‘Minari’ cannot compete for the main prize.
It wouldn’t be the Globes without a mess of foreign-language films. This time, the group is angry that Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” has to compete as an entry in a foreign language – although Chung is an American director, the film was shot in the United States and was funded by American companies and in an immigrant family in search of the American dream.
But the characters in “Minari” speak predominantly Korean. As a result, the Globe rules require you to be banned for the best foreign language film run; cannot be considered for the main prize.
“Hamilton”, on the other hand, is likely to benefit from the group’s rules. As a recorded stage performance, “Hamilton” is not eligible for an Oscar. But HFPA does not have this block. Therefore, expect Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical to appear as the best comedy or musical nominee.