Lack of diversity, Streamer mastery, ‘Music’ – Deadline

Last year’s Golden Globe was blown up for completely ignoring women in their category of Director, and this year they made up for it with a record three out of five nominees (Emerald Fennell, Chloé Zhao, Regina King), and on top indicated the strange debut in the direction of Sia Music for Best Picture – Musical / Comedy, but more about This one curio below.

Still, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s track record for diversity in other areas, such as representing the black film community, has done nothing to improve in the categories of Best Film – Drama and Best Film – Comedy / Musical, including no films. of a Negro filmmaker this year, despite a list of possibilities more abundant than ever. The prestigious list of AFI’s 10 best films, for example, included four: Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Black Bottom by Ma Rainey, One Night In Miami and Judas ethe the Black Messiah. None of these were eliminated in both Globes categories this morning, even after Lee Da 5 Bloods dominated the National Board of Review winners for Best Picture and Director. Was completely ignored by HFPA, including Delroy Lindo and the late Chadwick Boseman in the acting categories. All nominees for Best Picture in both categories came from white directors, with the exception of Zhao, born in China Nomadland. King, for his behind-the-scenes debut with One night in Miami and best known as an award-winning actress, she was the only black filmmaker nominated individually in the categories of direction and writing.

It was a little better in the film acting categories, with Viola Davis and Boseman nominated for Ma Rainey, Andra Day waving two nods to Actress (Drama) and Song to United States Vs Billie Holiday, and Daniel Kaluuya and Leslie Odom Jr. nod in Supporting Actor among the 30 nominees for acting. It was even worse on the television side, with only Don Cheadle in a TV comedy actor for Black Monday and John Boyega in Supporting Television Actor for Small Ax landing any of the 40 nods of Globo TV’s acting.

This being Hollywood Foreign In the press, there was a better international representation on the cinema side with names like Zhao, Riz Ahmed (Metal Sound), Maria Bakalova from Bulgaria (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) and Dev Patel (David Copperfield’s personal story) gaining recognition, but this is an overwhelmingly white list in a year when the films presented ample opportunities for a diverse group to come to the “party of the year” as NBC likes to announce its broadcast on Globes.

For this 2021 edition that will air on February 28, the party atmosphere is being profoundly affected by the continuing coronavirus pandemic with NBC announcing that the program will be split on both coasts, with Amy Poehler presenting in LA and Tina Fey in New York. No one knows what it will be like, because one of the most important things Globes has in its favor is all that star power packed in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton hotel. With potential candidates like George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Sophia Loren, Meryl Streep and others despised this year, until This one component seems problematic for the show. This must be the strangest Golden Globe since 2008, when the writers’ strike basically turned it into a press conference revealing the winners in an empty Hilton ballroom.

As for what they did name, this year’s list has to be the first, as the names of the big studios Warner Bros, Universal, Paramount and Sony do not represent any nominees for Best Drama Film, and only Disney receives a mention in Comedy / Musical for its filmed Broadway play Hamilton. The latter, unqualified for the Oscar and qualified as a TV entry in other award shows, needs a big asterisk as it was really a Disney + streaming attraction, so you can also scratch it out for the overwhelming success of streamers this year. The big traditional studios are really represented only in the much desired categories of Best Pic for their specialty divisions (Sony Pictures Classics for The father, Searchlight for Nomadland, Focus features for Promising young woman). Other than that, the glory today belongs to names like Amazon, Hulu, Apple and particularly Netflix, taking the rest of the field with 22 nominations on the cinema side, followed by seven from Amazon. But you knew that this would be a season that would turn conventional thinking upside down, right?

Always the case in the history of the Globes, there can be a real confusion among the nominees (remember The tourist?), but with two important nominations for Sia’s directorial debut Music you have to ask yourself what they are smoking. This film got one of the coveted nominations for Best Picture (Comedy / Musical), as well as the main performance of Kate Hudson (who does her best to give credibility), her hair totally cut for the role. The film was shown privately to me in early December, in the hope that I would interview Sia and say good things about her film; I politely declined after seeing it, finding that it was missing in almost every area. I researched online where it was being widely criticized by the autism community and a petition was issued for the film’s release to be canceled, hence the concern of its handlers about its final reception.

The title role is a character called Music, an autistic woman who continually listens to music on her headphones. She is played by Maddie Ziegler, an actress-dancer whose credits are almost all for Sia’s music videos. The film was made four years ago as a drama, but Warner Music offered Sia about $ 10 million more for its production budget if she put new songs in it so they could get an album out of it; these musical sequences are inserted as disconnected videos, although colorful, that seem to come out of Willy Wonka, completely interrupting the film in its tracks. I have to give my arm to hope that the public relations team of this film can somehow be nominated over many A lot of more valuable candidates like Sofia Coppola With ice and for Hudson it’s over Rocks star Rashida Jones or The prom Meryl Streep. Lordy. He will spend a night on the Imax screens next Wednesday and then on VOD on February 12th. Watch at your own risk, but mysteriously they have Globo voters on their side. This film was not shown or presented for the Critics Choice Awards, whose nominations take place on Monday, so, from what I can see, it appears to be that weird and weird who campaigned strictly for the Hollywood Foreign Press.

As for Netflix, if you ever had a chance to dominate the Oscar season, this is it, and the Globes clearly and correctly were enthusiastic about the wonderful work of David Fincher Mank with six nominations (including a posthumous one for his father Jack Fincher’s script) and Aaron Sorkin always relevant and sensational The Chicago Trial 7 who took five. Favorite critics groups like First cow and Never seldom sometimes always were excluded. I was also happy to see the criticism unfairly defamed Hillbilly Elegy still recognized for Glenn Close’s magnificent performance. Damn critics. Very well, Globos.

And there is also joy in Mudville at the widespread love for Sacha Baron Cohen in both Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Chicago 7 trial, personally getting three nominations. Both films had something important to say for those times and voters at Globo heard it rightly. It’s love for the fantastic Promising young woman is also promising, as are the nominations for Bill Murray in With ice and Jared Leto in The little things, two great performances that I hoped would not be forgotten, and for Michelle Pfeiffer, so good at French exit, receiving a nomination in the category Best Actress Comedy / Musical. And also for Leslie Odom Jr.’s brilliant Sam Cooke in One night in Miami, which earned him two nominations (he is also unfortunately in Sia’s film). In the Best Film – Foreign Language category, I was happy to see Edoardo Ponti’s film Life ahead from Italy nominated (and also for Diane Warren’s song “Seen”), but sad that her mother, the great Sophia Loren, has been forgotten. This category of Best Drama Actress is killer this year.

Whether this morning’s Globe nominations means anything to the Oscars this year, it remains to be seen, since without the usual awards party and display circuit in action, it is difficult to get a real hit on things. All five nominees for Best Drama Film seem to catch the Oscar nominations for Best Pic with just Borat in the Comedy Globes category, probably also successful with the Academy. This leaves four more films competing for these slots and probably giving Oscar a more diverse image. Tomorrow’s SAG Awards announcement will bring more clarity, or perhaps confusion, to the contest, as the most bizarre of the award seasons continues to heat up. Stay tuned.