The Golden Globes are done and dusted for this year, but also kicked off Hollywood’s most coveted award season. Given the shenanigans of the awards throughout its history, this year’s Golden Globes was a test for its future. And, it hasn’t really live up to its claims of revamps, as it seems when we look at this year’s winners. The audience and us in the news circuit were seemingly surprised at a few wins.
Oppenheimer was expected to win big, but few thought the film to make the big sweep. The film won Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Motion Picture in the drama segment, Best Original Score, and Christopher Nolan’s long overdue Best Director. Oppenheimer along with Barbie gave Hollywood a defining moment of its own, and both were expected to win big. Barbie especially, missed out on the big front by a long shot.
The Greta Gerwig helmed movie only won two awards of in the entirety of the event. It got the newly introduced Cinematic and Box Office achievement, and Best Original Song. Apparently, not one of the many awarding journalists found Barbie worthy of winning neither creative nor technical awards. Even after being separated from Oppenheimer by finding itself in the Best Motion Picture Musical/Comedy category, Barbie lost to Poor Things. The only feat of Barbie that the voting body thought of honoring was its money-making tactics, it seems. There is no doubt that the marketing and the theatre experience that it kicked off is worth honoring. But is the Golden Globes the right avenue for it? Interestingly, Barbie tied with Succession in having the most nominations (9 each). The latter won 4 out of them.
Taylor Swift too, unfortunately, failed to work her world-gripping star power on the voting body. Not only did she lose to Barbie, but she was also done bad by host Jo Koy. This year’s Golden Globes was far from the even that Dick Clark Productions was trying to paint it as. Koy is already getting a bad rep for his hosting of the awards, which is a different story altogether.
Another major snub was Past Lives. A directorial first for Celine Song, Past Lives was critically acclaimed and a top choice for multiple film enthusiasts. Given the tough competitions in the acting and Best Film categories, Past Lives had a chance at Best Original Screenplay. It lost to Anatomy of A Fall for screenplay, as well as in Best Foreign Language. In the latter category, Past Lives was a really good contender.
However, the Globes did good by honoring Paul Giamatti for Best Actor (Musical/Comedy) for The Holdovers. Also notable is Hayao Miyazaki’s extremely long-due Hollywood recognition for his work, by awarding The Boy and The Heron for Best Animated Feature. The movie won over the equally popular favorite, Spiderman: Across the SpiderVerse.
The award show seemed like a hastily dirt-swept-under-the-rug move, after its many controversies. This is the first edition of the show which does not have the shady Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) behind it. Despite the absence of the structure, the foreign press aspect of it remains. Now run by Dick Clark Productions (through Eldridge Holdings) – which also produces the event – the details of these journalists remain hidden. Allegations exposed by The Los Angeles Times in 2021 detailed the ineptness of the HFPA, and thereby raising questions on their worth as judges of cinematic excellence. The show was close to getting axed but claimed to wipe its slate clean, finding a new home with CBS after being dropped by NBC. However, the slate still seems to reek of its past controversies.
The question of whether or not the Golden Globes should be taken seriously still remains. The hype around the awards have made it a huge event in the awards circle, undermining reputed awards shows of SAG and PGA. Winners who don’t make the final cut in the Globes go ahead to win Oscars. Everything Everywhere All At Once won only in the acting categories of Best Actress and Supporting Actor, Musical and Comedy. At SAGs, however, EEAOT picked up most of the major acting awards, save for Best Actor – Michelle Yeoh couldn’t be named in that category, after all. Additionally, the film also bagged Outstanding Performance by a Cast. So that’s four individual awards, and a collective win purely for acting. And finally, the film ended its award run with its infamous sweep at the Academy awards, and also scripting history.
The Golden Globes might be the only show that separates films and series on a drama and musical basis. The Oscars, on the other hand, will put Barbie and Oppenheimer in the same category, thereby putting them on the same judging lens. The splitting up of award categories might allow for more titles to be nominated, but makes the viewers see the films differently. Lightweight or heavily dosed with drama, a film should be under the same judging treatment. It truly is bizarre how the Globes managed to create such a fanfare about itself, despite being marred with bribing controversies in public. People already rating movies based on the Golden Globes win should at least wait for the Academy Awards. That, will be some talk.