Golden Globes adjust to new normal
Awards season kicks off with technical glitches and calls for more diversity
LOS ANGELES: Hollywood’s awards season kicked off at a very different Golden Globes, with winners dialling in remotely to a ceremony that saw technical glitches and a few awkward moments amid controversy over a lack of diversity among event organisers.
Usually a star-packed party that draws Tinseltown’s biggest names to a Beverly Hills hotel ballroom, this pandemic edition was broadcast from identical sets in California and New York on Sunday, with essential workers and a few glamorous A-list presenters among the few in attendance.
Netflix, which came in with a commanding 42 nominations, won the top TV awards.
The Crown, as expected, took best drama series, along with acting wins for Josh O’Connor, Emma Corrin and Gillian Anderson.
The Queen’s Gambit won best limited series and best actress in the category for Anya Taylor-Joy.
Schitt’s Creek won best comedy series for its final season. Catherine O’Hara also took best actress in a comedy series.
The late Chadwick Boseman won best actor for blues drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, six months after his death from cancer at age 43.
The night was hit with an immediate technical glitch as the first winner, Daniel Kaluuya, initially lost sound for his acceptance speech, forcing in-studio presenter Laura Dern to apologise before audio was restored.
“You’re doing me dirty! Am I on?” joked best supporting actor Kaluuya, before paying tribute to late Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, whom he played in Judas and the Black Messiah.
In other early film awards, Jodie Foster accepted the prize for best supporting actress for Guantanamo legal drama The Mauritanian.
Korean-American immigrant family drama Minari won the Globe for best foreign language film.
Pixar’s Soul – mispronounced by presenter Tracy Morgan as Sawl ,to the amusement of the other stars – won best animated feature, as well as best musical score.
Sacha Baron Cohen celebrated wins for best actor and best picture motion picture comedy or musical for his Borat Subsequent Movie Film.
Rosamund Pike scooped best comedy actress for Netflix’s dark thriller I Care A Lot.
Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – hosting from opposite coasts – opened the ceremony via split-screen while pretending to reach across to one another.
Their opening routine made fun of the Globes-awarding group of obscure foreign reporters, which has been under pressure for its lack of diversity.
“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is made up of around 90 – no black – journalists that attend movie junkets each year in search for a better life,” said Fey.
Three senior HFPA officials took to the Globes stage early in the night, pledging “a more inclusive future” after influential showbiz groups piled on criticism over the weekend.
Presenter Sterling K. Brown quipped: “It is great to be black, um back, at the Golden Globes.”
But the Globes remain a high-profile source of momentum in the run-up to the Oscars, which were pushed back this year to April 25.
Meanwhile, Time’s Up has called on NBCUniversal to reform the Golden Globes.
“If HFPA understood the social reckoning of these times, it would not have needed an LA Times expose followed by negative global press and a pummelling on social media to announce a commitment to change,” said Time’s Up president and CEO Tina Tchen.