NEW YORK (AP) – With home video nominees appearing on remote video and presenting Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in different parts of the country, a 78th Socially Distant Golden Globe Award premiered amid the pandemic and amidst a storm of criticism from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with top awards for “Nomadland,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “The Crown” and “Schitt’s Creek.”
The highlight of the night, drama for best film, was for Chloé Zhao’s elegiac road movie “Nomadland,” a Western setting in which economic upheaval and personal pain ensue. Zhao, a Chinese-born filmmaker, became the first woman of Asian descent to win Best Director. She is the second woman in the history of the Globes to win and the first since Barbra Streisand won for “Yentl” in 1984.
“‘ The nomadland, to me, is a pilgrimage for pain and healing, ”Zhao said, accepting the awards at a distance. “For everyone who has experienced this difficult and beautiful journey at some point in their lives, this is for you.”
With a canceled red carpet and stars making speeches from the couch, the Sunday Globes had little of their typically frothy taste. But they continued, however, with winners in sweats and dogs in laps, in a pandemic that has wiped out almost all of Hollywood’s glamor.
Faced with scant traditional studio competition, broadcast services dominated the Globes like never before, even if the highest award was for a well-known or renamed source: Searchlight Pictures, the specialized label that now is owned by Disney behind “12 Years a Slave” and “Birdman”.
Amazon’s “Subsequent Borat Moviefilm,” one of the few nominated films partially shot during the pandemic, won Best Film, Comedy, or Musical. His star, guerrilla comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, also won Best Actor in a Comedy. Referring to Rudy Giuliani’s famous cameo, Baron Cohen thanked “a brand new talent that didn’t come out of nowhere and turned out to be a comedy genius.”
“I mean, who could make more laughs than a decompress,” he said.
Netflix, which participated with 42 nominations at the helm, won the best television awards. “The Crown,” as expected, garnered the best drama series, along with acting performances for Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles), Emma Corrin (Princess Diana) and Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher). “The Queen’s Gambit” won Best Limited Series and Best Actress in the Category for Anya Taylor-Joy. “Schitt’s Creek,” the Pop television series that found a wider audience on Netflix, won the best comedy series for its final season. Catherine O’Hara also won Best Actress in a Humorous Series.
Chadwick Boseman, as expected, posthumously won Best Actor in a Drama for his final performance, in August Wilson’s adaptation of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a Netflix version. Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, excitedly accepted the award in tears.
“Thank God. He would thank his parents. I would thank his ancestors for their guidance and sacrifices, ”Ledward said. “I would say something beautiful, something inspiring.”
Apple TV + won its first grand prize when Jason Sudeikis, dressed in a sweatshirt, won best actor in a comedy series for the television network “Ted Lasso”.
NBC television broadcast began on split screen. Fey took to the stage at New York’s Rainbow Room, while Poehler stayed at the Globes’ usual home at the Beverly Hilton. In their initial statements, they managed their coming and going typically well in time despite being almost 3,000 miles from each other.
“I always knew my career would end with me walking around the Rainbow Room pretending to talk to Amy,” Fey said. “I just thought it would be later.”
They appeared before the masked but starless attendees. Instead, the sparse tables, where Hollywood royalty are usually crammed and wrapped in alcohol during the show, were occupied by “lifeguards and essential workers,” as Fey said.
In a production nightmare, but familiar during the pandemic, the first winner of the night accepted his prize while he was silent. Only after presenter Laura Dern apologized for the technical difficulties did Daniel Kaluuya, who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” participate in the his speech. with his finger to the camera and said, “You’re making me dirty!”
Pandemic improvisation was only part of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s damage control, which puts the Globes. After The Los Angeles Times revealed that there were no black members on the HFPA’s 87-member voting body, the press association came under increasing pressure to better review and reflect the industry. which occupies.
This year, none of the most acclaimed black-directed films – “Ma Rainey’s Black Background,” “A Night in Miami,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Da 5 Bloods” – were nominated for award for best film at the Globes. . With HFPA potentially fighting for its life in Hollywood, Sunday’s Globes were part of an apology tour. Fey and Poehler quickly got started on the subject.
“Look, there’s a lot of flashy garbage, but that happens,” Poehler said. “It simply came to our notice then. But a number of black actors and black-led projects were overlooked. ”
In the first half hour of the NBC broadcast, members of the press association appeared on stage to pledge to change. “We recognize that we have our own work to do,” said Vice President Helen Hoehne. “We need to have black journalists in our organization.”
It is still unclear whether these statements, along with a diverse group of winners, did enough to remedy anything. By the time the show ended, Time’s Up had sent letters to HFPA and NBCUniveral demanding more. “Balloons are no longer golden. It’s time to act, “wrote Tina Tchen, president of the group.
The circumstances of COVID-19 led to some award anomalies. Mark Ruffalo, who appears remotely, won Best Actor in a limited series for “I Know That’s True,” with his children celebrating behind him and his wife, Sunrise Coigney, sitting next to him.
Lee Isaac Chung, writer-director of the tender Korean-American family drama “Minari” (a film in which HFPA was criticized for not being eligible for its highest award for its non-English dialogue), accepted the award in the best foreign language film while his young daughter hugged him. “She’s the reason I made this movie,” Chung said.
John Boyega, winner of the supporting actor for his performance in Steve McQueen’s anthology “Small Ax,” raised his leg to prove he was wearing sheet metal pants under his sleekest white jacket. Jodie Foster (“The Mauritanian”) won one of the Biggest Surprise Balloons, for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie, while sitting on the couch next to his wife, Alexandra Hedison, and with his dog, Ziggy to the skirt.
Even if sometimes the speeches had no drama without Hollywood coming together in one place, the performance was a common saying. Referring to HFPA diversity, former presenter and winner Sterling K. Brown began, “Thank you. It’s great to be black at the Golden Globes,” he said. “Back.”
Jane Fonda, winner of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, spoke passionately about expanding the great entertainment store for everyone. “Art hasn’t always been the same as history, but it’s been the first path,” Fonda said. “So let’s be leaders.”
Other awards included Pixar’s “Soul” for best animated film; Rosumund Pike was the best actress in a comedy or musical film for “I Care a Lot”; Aaron Sorkin (“Trial of the Chicago 7”) for best screenplay; and, in the biggest surprise of the night, Andra Day (“United States vs. Billie Holiday”) for Best Actress in a Drama, beating Carey Mulligan (“Young Promise”) and Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”).
Despite considerable backlash from the show, the Globes have persisted due to its popularity (the show is the third most-watched awards program after the Oscars and Grammys), its profitability (NBC paid $ 60 million for broadcast rights in 2018) and because they serve as important marketing material for films in competition and Oscar aspirants.
The Academy Awards will be held on April 25th.