The 78th Golden Globes took place on Sunday evening and it was a very different way of giving awards due to the pandemic. Big winners included the TV series The Crown and the movie Nomadland.
NOEL KING, HOST:
Hollywood virtually celebrated the 78th Golden Globe Awards last night, and like every Zoom meeting, it was weird and tense in places. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been criticized for nominating things that critics and viewers deemed okay, but overlooked art like Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You”. The moderators have dealt with it. Here is the Mandalit del Barco from NPR.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the HFPA, has long been ridiculed for its credibility. An investigation by the Los Angeles Times last week found potential issues related to celebrity dealings and lavish member trips. In addition, the paper reported by the 87 journalists in the HFPA is not a single one black. Two days ago, the Golden Globes received the hashtag #timesupglobes, a protest against the lack of diversity.
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AMY POEHLER: Everyone is understandably upset about the HFPA and its decisions.
DEL BARCO: The hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey got to the point at the beginning of the ceremony.
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POEHLER: A lot of conspicuous rubbish was nominated, but that happens, OK? This is like their thing. But a number of black actors and black-led projects have been overlooked.
TINA FEY: And we all know award shows are stupid.
POEHLER: Yes. They are all a scam made up from a great red carpet.
FEY: To sell more carpet.
POEHLER: We know …
FEY: It’s even about stupid things, inclusivity is important, and there are no black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
DEL BARCO: During the socially distant ceremony, three HFPA members responded to the controversy – Helen Hoehne from Germany, former President Meher Tatna from India and Turkish member Ali Sar.
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HELEN HOEHNE: We have to have black journalists in our organization.
MEHER TATNA: We also need to make sure that everyone from all underrepresented communities has a seat at our table. And we will make it possible.
ALI SAR: That means creating an environment in which diverse membership is the norm, not the exception.
DEL BARCO: During the ceremony, presenter Sterling K. Brown made this comment.
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STERLING K BROWN: It’s great to be black at the Golden Globes – back – back at the Golden Globes.
DEL BARCO: Sacha Baron Cohen toasted the all-white Hollywood Foreign Press Association when he received two awards for his film “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”. Daniel Levy accepted the award for the best television series “Schitt’s Creek” and called for more inclusion at the Globes. And Jane Fonda, who received the HFPA’s Cecil B. DeMille Prize, pitched Hollywood to do better.
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JANE FONDA: We’re a storytelling community, aren’t we? And in turbulent, troubled times like these, storytelling has always been essential. You see, stories have a way – they can change our hearts and minds. They can help us to see ourselves in a new light, to show empathy and to recognize that despite all the diversity, we are human first.
DEL BARCO: While the nominees were watching from home, the Golden Globes were even more relaxed than usual. So much so that winner Jason Sudeikis wore a tie-dye hoodie and winner Jodie Foster wore chic pajamas. Some of the nominees and winners held their pets, hugged their children, and chatted as if they were on Zoom during breaks. And there were a couple of technical issues.
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DANIEL KALUUYA: You make me dirty. Am i up Is that on Is that on Good. Cool.
(CHEER)
DEL BARCO: This is Daniel Kaluuya, who was named Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Judas and the Black Messiah”. Among the other Golden Globes were actors Emma Corrin, Josh O’Connor and Gillian Anderson, all from The Crown, the best drama on the television series. Director Chloe Zhao made history at the Globes as the first Asian woman and the second woman to ever win the Globe for Best Director. Your film “Nomadland” was also recognized as best cinema drama. She spoke to reporters about her victories in a virtual press room.
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CHLOE ZHAO: Sometimes a premiere feels like a long time, doesn’t it? You feel it is time. And I’m sure there are many others before me who deserve the same recognition. I just love what I do.
DEL BARCO: The late actor Chadwick Boseman played his last role as a trumpeter in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”. The 43-year-old actor died of cancer in August. Last night his widow Taylor Simone Ledward tearfully accepted his award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. She said that if her husband were still here, he would thank his ancestors.
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TAYLOR SIMONE LEDWARD: He would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that amplifies that little voice in all of us that tells you you can, that tells you to go ahead, that calls you back to what you are supposed to do at this moment in history.
DEL BARCO: She might want to get used to making speeches. The awards season as it is known in Hollywood has only just begun.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
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