NEW YORK (AP) – With homemade nominees appearing through remote videos and hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on different sides of the country, a very socially distributed 78th Golden Globe award has been spotted amidst the pandemic and amidst a storm of criticism for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with the best awards for “Nomadland,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “The Crown” and “Schitt’s Creek.”
The best award of the evening, the best picture drama, went to Chloé Zhao’s elegant road movie “Nomadland”, a Western version of economic revolution and personal sadness. Zhao, the China-born filmmaker, became the first woman of Asian descent to win Best Director. She is only the second woman in the history of the Globes to win, and the first since Barbra Streisand won in 1984 for ‘Yentl’.
“The core of Nomadland is for me a pilgrimage through sadness and healing,” Zhao said, accepting the award at a distance. “For everyone who has gone through this difficult and beautiful journey at some point in their lives, this is for you.”
With a canceled red carpet and stars holding speeches off the couch, Sunday’s Globes had little of their typical frothy scent. But they nonetheless went on to win in sweat and dogs around, in a pandemic that wowed almost all the glamor of Hollywood.
In contrast to the rare traditional studio competition, streaming services dominated the Globes like never before – even though the award went to a well-known, or renamed source: Searchlight Pictures, the now Disney specialty brand behind ’12 Years a Slave ‘and’ Birdman ‘ ‘.
Amazon’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” – one of the few nominated films shot in part during the pandemic – won the best film, comedy or musical. His star, guerrilla comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, also won Best Actor in a Comedy. Referring to Rudy Giuliani’s infamous cameo, Baron Cohen resigns “a fresh new talent who came from nowhere and turns out to be a comedy genius.”
“I mean, who can laugh more from a zipper,” he said.
Netflix, which has won 42 nominations, has won the best TV awards. ‘The Crown’ has, as expected, achieved the best drama series, along with Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles), Emma Corrin (Princess Diana) and Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher). “The Queen’s Gambit” won the best limited series and the best actress in the category for Anya Taylor-Joy. ‘Schitt’s Creek’, the Pop TV series that found a wider audience on Netflix, won the best comedy series for its final season. Catherine O’Hara also took on the best actress in a comedy series.
Chadwick Boseman, as expected, posthumously won Best Actor in a Drama Film for his final performance, in the adaptation of Ma Wilson of August in ‘Ma Black’, a Netflix release. Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, accepted the award emotionally.
“He would thank God. He would thank his parents. “He would like to thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifices,” Ledward said. “He would say something beautiful, something inspiring.”
Apple TV + wins its first major award when sweatshirt-clad Jason Sudeikis wins Best Actor in a Comedy Series for the streamer’s “Ted Lasso.”
The NBC broadcast started on a split screen. Fey stood on stage in the Rainbow Room in New York, while Poehler stayed in the Globes’ usual home in the Beverly Hilton. In their first remarks, they managed their back-and-forth typical time frame, even though they were almost 3,000 miles apart.
“I always knew my career would end with me wandering around the Rainbow Room and pretending to talk to Amy,” Fey said. “I just thought it would be later.”
They appeared in front of masked participants, but no stars. Instead, the sparse tables – where Hollywood royals are usually put together and filled with alcohol during the show – are occupied by ‘smoky first responders and essential workers’, as Fey said.
In a production nightmare, but one that became known during the pandemic, the evening’s first winner accepted his award while muted. Only after presenter Laura Dern apologized for the technical problems did Daniel Kaluuya, who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Fred Panther leader Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” deliver his speech. When he finally got through, he waved his finger at the camera and said, “You’re making me dirty!”
The improvisation of pandemic was only part of the damage control for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the Globes. After The Los Angeles Times revealed that there are no black members in the voting rights of 87 people of the HFPA, the press association came under increasing pressure to revamp itself and better reflect the industry it holds.
This year, none of the most award-winning films under black leadership – “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, “One Night in Miami”, “Judas and the Black Messiah”, “Da 5 Bloods” – were nominated for the Globes’ Best Picture- award. The HFPA may have fought for its Hollywood life, and Sunday’s Globes were an apology tour. Fey and Poehler start quickly on the issue.
“Look, a lot of fancy rubbish has been nominated, but it’s happening,” Poehler said. “It’s like their thing. But a number of black actors and black-led projects have been overlooked. ‘
Within the first half hour of the NBC broadcast, members of the press association appeared on stage to promise change. “We realize we have our own work to do,” said Vice President Helen Hoehne. “We need to have black journalists in our organization.”
Whether these statements, along with a diverse group of winners, did enough to repair anything remains unclear. By the time the show ended, Time’s Up had sent letters to the HFPA and NBCUniversal demanding more. “The Globes are not fast anymore. It’s time to act, “wrote Tina Tchen, the group’s president.
COVID-19 conditions led to some discrepancies in the awards. Mark Ruffalo, who appears at a distance, won Best Actor in a Limited Series for “I Know This Much Is True” with his children celebrating behind him and his wife, Sunrise Coigney, sitting next to him.
Lee Isaac Chung, co-director of the tender Korean-American family drama “Minari” (a film in which the HFPA was criticized for not being eligible for its award due to its non-English dialogue), won the award for the best foreign film accepts his young daughter embraces him. “She’s the reason I made this movie,” Chung said.
John Boyega, co-star winner for his performance in Steve McQueen’s “Small Ax” bundle, lifts his leg to show that he is wearing sweatpants under his more elegant white jacket. Jodie Foster (‘The Mauritanian’) won one of the biggest surprises Globes for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie while sitting next to her wife, Alexandra Hedison, and with her dog Ziggy on her lap on the couch.
Although there was sometimes drama in speeches without Hollywood meeting in one place, representation was a common refrain. Referring to the diversity of the HFPA, presenter and previous winner Sterling K. Brown said: ‘Thank you. “It’s great to be black at the Golden Globes,” he said. ‘Back.’
Jane Fonda, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, spoke passionately about expanding the big tent for entertainment for all. “Art has always not only kept pace with history, but has also taken the lead,” Fonda said. “So let’s be leaders.”
Other awards include Pixar’s “Soul” for best animated film; Rosumund Pike took Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for ‘I Care a Lot’; Aaron Sorkin (“Trial of the Chicago 7”) for Best Screenplay; and, in the night’s biggest surprise, Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) for Best Actress in a Drama, starring Carey Mulligan (‘Promising Young Woman’) and Frances McDormand (‘Nomadland’).
Despite significant setbacks ahead of the show, the Globes persisted because of their popularity (the show is considered the third most award-winning awards program after the Oscars and Grammys), their profitability (NBC paid $ 60 million for broadcast rights in 2018) and because it serves as important marketing material for competitive films and hopeful Oscar.
The Academy Awards will be held on April 25th.