The Golden Globes can’t get rid of its HFPA 'baggage'
Semafor Signals
Insights from Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, and New York Post
NEWS
The 2024 Golden Globes, which marked the first awards ceremony since the Hollywood strikes ended in September and October last year, arrived not with a bang but a whimper, many watchers said.
The event hoped to recover some of its glamor after years of controversy, culminating in the dissolution of the corruption-ridden Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a nonprofit that chose the winner, and the transfer of the rights of the awards into the hands of a billionaire media mogul.
Many critics said the changes did little to help the ceremony, paving a rocky start to this year’s already shaky awards season.
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Trade publications lament “near-total-disaster” of awards show
Critics were left unimpressed with the “near-total-disaster” of the show, according to Vanity Fair. While the Golden Globes are often known for giving a “cynical, grasping ceremony,” this year “felt particularly desperate,” VF wrote. One low point was the last-minute hire of “unknown” comedian Jo Koy, who threw the shows’ writers under the bus after getting an icy reception from attendees, who didn’t appear to appreciate his jokes during a “desperately sycophantic” opening monologue. But despite its tarnished reputation, it’s the “stars that make an awards show come alive,” the Los Angeles Times reported, which will keep the ceremony running so long as the nominees keep attending.
The globes got a post-HFPA facelift, but its 'baggage' remains
The absence of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — long ridiculed for internal corruption, unqualified members, and lack of diversity — was noticeable in this year’s list of winners and nominees which The Daily Beast described as “a crop which ranks as probably the most respectable” in a long time. But for many, the HFPA will remain inseparable from the awards, as some winners mistakenly thanked the non-existent organization in their speeches. “If you keep the Golden Globes name, you keep the Golden Globes baggage,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter. Some winners like Robert Downy Jr. acknowledged the restructuring, saying, “Golden Globes journalists, thanks for changing your game, therefore changing your names — salute.”
World is still anxious to see 'red-carpet sparkle' after Hollywood strike
This awards ceremony season will prove “the most unique” in decades, after the months-long Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes last year caused top-contending films to receive little media spotlight. Major streaming giants like Apple, Netflix, and Amazon also remain unsure about how much to rely on awards as a “quality signifier,” according to Forbes. Still on deck are the delayed Emmys, which will include shows competing for their first season that missed their first eligibility window due to the strike. The world is hungry for “real red-carpet sparkle” after the strikes, one wardrobe dresser told the New York Post, and the Golden Globes presented the first opportunity in months to celebrate that.
