Golden Globes 2021 Overview
I. Love. Award Shows.
I understand if you aren’t a fan. You can tell me all you want about how awards shows are an elitist circle jerk where a bunch of rich people wear outfits that are worth more than the average American’s salary get together and pat each other on the back. Or you can tell me how award shows are upholding the white-cis-hetero-patriarchy. You can tell me how art is inherently subjective and even trying to determine the “best” in any given category is an exercise in futility at best and a political popularity contest at worst. I would not disagree with you on any of these points. You’re right.
That being said, I would also tell you that hard work deserves to be acknowledged and rewarded, even if in the Puritanical United States the arts aren’t really considered work. I’d also tell you that the stories we tell on stage and screen are intertwined with society at large and that even though those administering awards have often been behind, in recent years the shows have been platforms for activism in many meaningful ways. And I completely agree on the inherent subjectivity of art, but there’s no getting around that one, really. Unless all award shows went in the Obie Awards (one of Off-Broadway’s most important award shows) direction and got rid of predetermined categories and just gave awards to anyone they felt did something award worthy that season, but I find that unlikely.
So, while I see both sides, you will never convince me to do away with award shows or stop me from giving them my full attention every year. Especially the Golden Globes, which are by far the most stupid and the most fun of them all.
Unlike the other major award shows (Emmys, Oscars, Tonys, Grammys, and guild specific award shows like SAG, WGA, DGA, and PGA awards), the Golden Globes are not presented by peers in the industry, but rather by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. What does the HFPA do, you ask? It’s a non-profit comprised of journalists and photographers who report on the entertainment industry, and it’s membership boasts EIGHTY-NINE PEOPLE. Even the Tonys, the smallest of the coveted EGOTs, has approximately 750 voters. The Golden Globes has 89. So we already get one big old point towards the “most stupid award show” category.
Then we get into how the categories are divided and things get bonkers. Unlike the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes divides the best picture category into drama and comedy or musical. On the one hand, I really like this because it helps bring attention to films that just aren’t Oscar bait. The Oscars tend to award dramas, especially biopics and other stories based on true events from history, and often ignores musicals, comedies, and indie darlings. However, I pushback against musicals and comedies being lumped together. For examples, Les Miserables won the category in 2012, but is it really fair to judge the epic drama of Les Mis in the same category as Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom?
Additionally, while the Academy Awards and Golden Globes both have a separate category for best foreign film, in the Oscars foreign films are still eligible for best picture, such as last year’s historic win by Parasite. At the Golden Globes the best picture nominees have to be English language films, which is significant this year in the exclusion of Minari, an American film made by Americans in America about the Korean immigrant experience, and thus is mostly in Korean.
Also, the Academy Awards explicitly exclude filmed plays or musicals from eligibility (although I think they might count as documentaries, but don’t quote me on that), while the Golden Globes has no such rule, leading Hamilton to be nominated for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Lin-Manuel Miranda to be nominated for his leading role. The cast was also determined to be eligible for SAG Awards, although they received no nominations. Interestingly, although the Golden Globes are often thought to be Oscars pre-cursors, they usually aren’t, while the SAG Awards often are. This year, the SAG Award nominations are noticeably more coherent and diverse than the Golden Globes, so that bodes well for Oscar noms.
Okay, more reasons the Golden Globes are super dumb. While the best picture award is divided into drama and comedy and the leading actor categories in both film and television are divided by genre as well, the supporting actor categories aren’t. I imagine this decision was made for budgetary/time-constraint/stream-lining purposes, but all it gets us is Annie Murphy’s brilliant and heartfelt comedic performance in Schitt’s Creek nominated against Gillian Anderson’s perfection as Margaret Thatcher in The Crown. Voting on acting performances is always an issue of apples and oranges because you’re not just voting on that actor, but also the writing and the character, but this just makes it worse.
So here’s the thing about the Globes. Everyone in the industry also knows that they’re dumb for all the aforementioned reasons, but the general public only sees the glaring dumbness of another award show honoring predominantly white filmmakers and stories. I understand why this is so frustrating, and I do think the HFPA should do better. I agree that I May Destroy You should have received noms and Emily in Paris definitely shouldn’t have. I also do not understand why The Prom and James Corden were nominated. But I am not going to spend time talking about the snubs and all that just because the Globes are so stupid, that I don’t think it’s worth my time.
The stupidity of the Globes is best exemplified under normal circumstances by the ceremony itself and the behavior of the host and guests. While other Award shows tend to be more buttoned up affairs in large theaters, the Globes are traditionally held at the Beverly Hills Hilton in the hotel’s ballroom and are a sit down dinner. People get really drunk. It’s hilarious. And while I am excited to see Tina Fey and Amy Poehler host again, albeit virtually and from different coasts, and I hope the guests and honorees are getting drunk from the comfort of their own homes, I will be sad to miss the in-person shenanigans that are a hallmark of the telecast.
For the rest of the month leading up to the ceremony, I will be focusing a great deal of blog content on the Golden Globes nominees and be contributing my thoughts on who I think will win in each category. I was going to start today with David Fincher’s much nominated Mank, but this post is already longer than I expected it to be, so expect that to drop tomorrow or the next day. For now, imaginary reader, enjoy the rest of your weekend and let me know what you’re most excited for at this year’s Golden Globes.