HONOR FOR LATE STAR
BOSEMAN WINS BEST ACTOR AT GOLDEN GLOBES
Chadwick Boseman was a superhero and now he is also a Golden Globes winner.
Exactly six months after the beloved “Black Panther” actor died from colon cancer that he kept secret for years, Boseman was named the best actor in a drama at the Golden Globes Sunday for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
“He would thank God,” his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, said through tears while accepting the award on his behalf. “He would thank his parents. He would thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifices. He would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice inside of all of us that tells you, ‘You can,’ that tells you to keep going, that calls you back to what you are meant to be doing at this moment in history.”
China-born Chloé Zhao made history when she won best director for “Nomadland,” marking only the second time in the 78year history of the ceremony that a female filmmaker has received the honor. Three of the five nominees for best director at the 2021 Globes were women: Zhao, Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman” and Regina King for “One Night in Miami.”
Zhao joined Barbra Streisand, who won the directing honor for 1983 s “Yentl.”
“Nomadland” also won the top honor of the night, best drama film, beating out “The Father,”
“Mank,” “Promising Young Woman” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
“Nomadland” is the first female-directed best picture winner in Globes history.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” — starring former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the year’s most compromising role — won best musical or comedy and the actor also won best actor in a musical or comedy.
On the TV side, “Schitt’s Creek” and “The Crown” were big winners, taking home awards for best comedy and drama, respectively, as well as acting awards for Catherine O’Hara, Emma Corrin and Josh O’Connor. “The Queen’s Gambit,” about a damaged chess prodigy, netted a trophy for best limited series and one for star Anya Taylor-Joy for best actress in a limited series.
The hosts of Sunday night’s ceremony appeared on different coasts, with Tina Fey at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan and Amy Poehler at the Beverly Hilton in California, and almost immediately jumped into the show’s biggest controversy, involving the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the body that chooses the winners.
“Look, a lot of flashy garbage got nominated, OK? It happens. That’s, like, their thing,” Poehler said. “But a number of Black actors and Black-led projects were overlooked.”
“And look, we all know that award shows are stupid,” Fey added. “They’re all a scam, invented by big red carpet, to sell more carpet,” Poehler said.
“But even with stupid things, inclusivity is important and there’s no Black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press,” Fey said. “I realize, HFPA, that maybe you guys didn’t get the memo because your workplace is the back booth of a French McDonald’s, but you have to change that. So, here’s the change.”
Of the HFPA’s 87 members, zero are Black, the Los Angeles Times reported last week. At the same time, a separate Times investigation found widespread allegations of corruption, including claims the nonprofit organization’s governance was susceptible to “ethical lapses.”
Despite the voting body’s shortcomings, several non-white actors besides Boseman were celebrated, including Andra Day for best actress in a drama for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” John Boyega for best supporting actor in a television series for “Small Axe” and Daniel Kaluuya for his revelatory role as Black Panther Fred Hampton in
“Judas and the Black Messiah.”
“I hope generations after this can see how brilliant he fought, how brilliantly he spoke and how brilliantly he loved,” Kaluuya said after awkwardly trying to speak while his audio was muted. “He taught me about myself, made me grow as a man and I appreciate it with all my heart...there’s a lot of information about how he died, but I hope you people out there will grow and learn about how incredibly he lived.”
“Minari,” the acclaimed drama about a Korean-American family was named best foreign language film, weeks after the Globes drew criticism for not making “Minari” eligible in its best motion picture categories due to the movie not being predominantly in English.
Mark Ruffalo won best performance by an actor, limited series, anthology series or motion picture made for television for his dual roles in “I Know This Much Is True” and Rosamund
Pike was a surprise win for actress in a musical or comedy for her dark “I Care A Lot.”
“In my movie, I had to swim up from a sinking car and I think I still would rather do that than have been in a room with Rudy Giuliani,” Pike said to “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” star Maria Bakalova, who was nominated in the same category.
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” was named best screenplay and Jason Sudeikis, keeping it casual in a tie-dye sweatshirt, took home the trophy for actor in a musical or comedy series for his heartwarming “Ted Lasso,” about an American football coach who crosses the ocean to lead a British soccer team.
Norman Lear, whose résumé includes “All in the Family,” Good Times,” “The Jeffersons,” “Maude” and “One Day at a Time,” was honored with the third annual Carol Burnett Award for “outstanding contributions to the television medium on or off the screen.”
“I could not feel more blessed,” the 98-year-old producer said while accepting the honor. “I am convinced that laughter adds time to one’s life, and nobody has made me laugh harder and nobody I owe more time to than Carol Burnett and the brilliant team that helped her realize her comedic genius.”
Jane Fonda received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her work on and off the screen, celebrating a career that includes “9 to 5,” “Grace and Frankie” and constant fights for social justice.
“We are a community of storytellers and in turbulent, crisis-torn times, storytelling has always been essential,” the New York-born actress said on stage.
“You see, stories have a way to, they can change our hearts and our minds. They can help us see each our in a new light. To have empathy, to recognize that for all of our diversity, we are humans first, right? You know, I have seen a lot of diversity in my long life and at times I have been challenged to understand some of the people I’ve met, but inevitably, if my heart is open and I look beneath the surface, I feel kinship.”