At this point, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has no more excuses. If you are following current events about the organization that hosts the annual Golden Globe Awards, then you know that this statement can apply to any number of errors. The main attraction of Sunday’s 78th annual awards, of course, is the absence of black representation in the organization’s ranks.
HFPA has not had a black journalist among its members in 20 years.
Thus, to lead the broadcast of 2021 awards almost bypassing Daniel Kaluuya’s acceptance speech for his Best Supporting Actor, the victory in Cinema for his interpretation of Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah” was particularly regrettable.
For this round of distance self-compliance, one would think that the organization would like to make sure that the event itself was as technically flawless as it could be. Several award programs were run before this Globo, which the producers could have understood. 2020 Emmys broadcast the nominees live from 100 active feeds simultaneously broadcast from locations around the planet.
And yet this happened: Laura Dern, who presented the award for Best Supporting Actor, seemed disturbed by the persistence of technical difficulties and tried to move things around, skipping the actor’s speech. But when the connection was restored to Kaluuya’s cry – “You are dirtying me! Are you on? Are you on?” – he gave his full speech, expressing hope that the people who watched the film would be moved to find out more about how Hampton lived, instead of simply knowing how he died.
If there was an award ceremony that symbolized the world collectively succumbing to pandemic blues, it was the 78th Golden Globe. Back hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey did what they could, with Poehler broadcasting live from the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, where the awards usually take place, and Fey broadcasting from the Rainbow Room in New York. Each of them played in low-capacity rooms made up of frontline employees in the audience and approached being on stage together through a strange split screen. But the whole night was a cake with a flabby middle and burnt edges.
In addition to the failure of Best Supporting Actor, the night continued with just a few mistakes here and there, and at least one – Tracy Morgan reading the title of Best Animated Film winner “Soul” as “Sal” – possibly intentional.
The winners themselves were more or less as expected. It was a good night for “The Crown” and specifically for its stars Emma Corrin, Josh O’Connor and Gillian Anderson. “The Queen’s Gambit” had several victories, as did “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “Nomadland”.
Rosamund Pike was shocked by her victory at the Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Film, Musical or Comedy for “I Care a Lot”. Of course, “Schitt’s Creek” won the award for Best TV Comedy, as did Catherine O’Hara. It swept the Emmy. Why wouldn’t the Globes throw something on the stack?
The celebrity nominees approached their homes, although there were a few live presenters, including Tiffany Haddish, Angela Bassett, Sterling K. Brown and Susan Kelechi Watson, which was to be expected.
However, realizing how casually some saw the night as opposed to others provided a sure sign of how long we have been in this pandemic business. Angela Bassett murdered in a regal plum dress with feather trim because that’s part of the contract the universe signed with her – there’s never a time when she doesn’t look flawless.
Anya Taylor-Joy was dressed to the nines in an emerald dress and ready to steal her Globe for “The Queen’s Gambit”, which also won the award for Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or Film Made for Television. When “Minari” won a Best Picture Globe, Lee Isaac Chung’s seven-year-old daughter of Foreign Language stole the show by hugging her father and showing off her fake fur capelette.
Meanwhile, Jason Sudeikis, who looked totally shocked by the victory of his Best Actor in Comedy on TV for “Ted Lasso”, appeared in a faded tie-dye sweatshirt. Even the impeccably dressed Boyega admitted that he was formal at the top and training pants at the bottom.
This was also the most sober Golden Globe we’ve seen in a long time, and I have to admit, I miss my seasoned celebrities. Everyone was at home or coming from a rental location made to look like home, but no one seemed terribly crazy or dejected or in the mood to talk about injustice, except Mark Ruffalo’s usual serious ramblings.
Without any of the usual distractions, then, we were left to contemplate the irony of so many black presenters for an award ceremony that snubbed a long list of works and performances by black creatives.
Fey embraced the license that every Globes presenter has to criticize the stars a little to quote the ridiculous nominations for “Emily in Paris” and Sia’s disastrous “Music”. Cecil B. DeMille award winner Jane Fonda sang the praises of Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” in her acceptance speech, which is as close to the Globes stage as that deserving series has arrived.
Spike Lee’s sons, Satchel and Jackson Lewis Lee, were chosen to be Golden Globe ambassadors, a ceremonial role that in no way compensates for the fact that their excellent Vietnam veterinary drama “Da 5 Bloods” was excluded from the dispute. awards.
His star Delroy Lindo was expected to receive a nomination, only to be dismissed – placing him in the company of TV artists with names like “Euphoria” star and Emmy winner Uzo Aduba from “Mrs. America” And Jurnee Smollett and Aunjanue Ellis from “Lovecraft Country”.
Slaps on the head also abounded among the options indicated, one of the biggest being that “Minari”, the winner of the film in Foreign Language, is an entirely American production.
Black co-director of “Soul”, Kemp Powers, gave his part in the team’s acceptance speech through a recording, since, according to The Hollywood Reporter, apparently he was only notified that he was one of the nominees on Sunday .
And if seeing Lee’s children trotted out as part of the HFPA’s “We Can Do Better” contest was not enough to shudder, the three HFPA members who took the stage to speak harshly about diversity, with the former HFPA president, Meher Tatna, placed front and center, was particularly embarrassing.
Sacha Baron Cohen, twice a winner on Sunday for his “Borat” sequel, refused to let them slip away in his acceptance speech: “Thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press, all white!” he said.
All of this fell together in a pile of misfortunes created by the organization itself – and yet, its lack of inclusion should not undermine the solid and valuable victories that this round of awards has yielded. Kaluuya deserves that Globo, as does John Boyega for his Best Supporting Actor, victory on TV for his performance in “Small Ax”.
Chadwick Boseman gave the performance of his career in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and did not survive to reap the rewards that are due to him. His victory on Sunday should guarantee an Oscar nomination; it also makes him the first black winner since Forest Whitaker received his Globe Award for “The Last King of Scotland” in 2006.
To see Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, accept the award on her behalf, crying as she graciously declares every line of what she believes he would have said, is to know that this tribute is especially bittersweet.
“He would thank God. He would thank his parents. He would thank his ancestors for their guidance and sacrifice,” she said. “He would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice within all of us that says you can, that tells you to continue, that calls you back to what you should be doing at this point in history.”
Her speech was powerful and moving, and thinking that she will probably have to do it again at the Oscars is just as wonderful and painful.
On the other side of the emotional spectrum, there is nothing but joy to be taken out of the skit in which a group of young children could not say where the royal family in England lived, but recognizes Boseman as The Black Panther.
The story of other Globes also happened on Sunday: Andra Day’s victory as Best Actress in Motion Picture Drama for her work on “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” makes her the first black woman to win in that category in 35 years.
“Nomadland” director Chloe Zhao also made history as the second woman to win the Golden Globe Best Director award (Barbra Streisand won for “Yentl” in 1983) and the first Asian woman to receive the award. His film also won the award for Best Film, Drama.
Whatever the sins of laziness that HFPA has committed all these years, nothing detracts from these legitimate victories, although the field of TV could be more varied and better reflect the adventurous art that we saw last year.
Then again, I hope the organization will be inspired by the example set by Norman Lear, this year’s Carol Burnett Prize winner. His introduction included a montage of his greatest work, including “All In the Family”, “Good Times”, “The Jeffersons” and “Maude” and both versions of “One Day at a Time” – each impactful and extraordinary comedies that touched our hearts and made us want to do and be better.
If the path traced by their life’s work is not enough for them to follow, there is also this direct call from Fonda to pay attention: “There are stories that we are afraid to see and hear in this industry … about who is offered a seat at the table “she said, adding:” Art has always been not only in tune with history, but has also paved the way, so let us be leaders “. At the very least, maybe open these exclusive gates a little more.