2020 Golden Globes: Just What I Thought - TRASH!
The Golden Globes ceremony has come and gone and, to no surprise, it’s trash. Even before the nominations were announced, I knew not to expect much because the Golden Globes in itself is trash. I know awards in general can often times be arbitrary and meaningless, but The Golden Globes especially should not be held in any high regard. The ceremony is hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - not anyone in the film or television industry - and nominations and winners are chosen by its 90-something members. The Golden Globes is notorious for being bought. This is a group that gave ‘The Tourist’ a Best Motion Picture nomination after its members were swayed by gifts and fancy trips from the studio. Why do we give it so much value and attention?!
Film Nominations
Like any awards ceremony, there were surprises and snubs, not just in the awardees themselves but even in the nominations. There are so many films and TV shows it can’t nominate everyone and everything that’s deserving, so my general rule is a category can’t snub unless you believe one or more of the nominees can be replaced. And boy, the Golden Globes sure had a lot of nomination snubs! The most apparent one is its lack of female nominees - in the 20 (TWENTY!) nomination slots for Best Motion Picture and Best Screenplay categories, no women were nominated (NONE!). Like I thought, TRASH. I know I’m going to sound hypocritical here since I haven’t seen all of the nominated films for Best Motion Picture categories (Best Motion Picture is split between two categories, “Drama” and “Musical or Comedy,” which is another thing I have a problem with, but that’s for another day), but it’s hard to believe not even one film from a female director was “good enough” to be nominated. ‘The Farewell’, ‘Booksmart’, ‘Hustlers’, ‘Queen & Slim’, and ‘Little Women’ are all women-directed features that come to mind that I’ve seen - and there are plenty more I haven’t seen yet that received critical acclaim, including ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’, ‘Honey Boy’, and ‘Fast Color’.
It’s ridiculous that two of the best films of the year, ‘Parasite’ and ‘The Farewell’, are relegated to the Best Foreign Language Film category. The Golden Globes has a rule where a film can’t be nominated in more than one best film category (i.e. Best Foreign Language Film and Best Motion Picture - Drama or Musical or Comedy). ‘The Farewell’ is an American film, but because it features characters speaking Mandarin, it’s in this category. This rule allows non-American films to be nominated for Best Motion Picture as long as they’re predominantly in English. Last I checked, the United States does not have an official language.
As for the acting noms, the Globes continues an industry-wide tradition of nominating just one person of color per acting category, if any. Antonio Banderas is the sole POC nominated for Best Actor - Drama, Cynthia Erivo for Best Actress - Drama (no, I’m not going to make a Scarlett Johansson joke), Eddie Murphy for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy, Awkwafina for Best Actress - Musical or Comedy (First of all, ‘The Farewell’ is not a comedy. And second of all, if Awkwafina is nominated for Best Actress - Musical or Comedy, then why isn’t ‘The Farewell’ nominated in Motion Picture equivalent?), and Jennifer Lopez for Best Supporting Actress.
Film Winners
Though The Golden Globes doesn’t really affect the Oscars, it does affect a film’s award-season narrative. And there were some surprises, that’s for sure! ‘1917’ beating out heavyweights like ‘The Irishman’ or ‘Marriage Story’ for Best Motion Picture - Drama was a big surprise. Taron Egerton winning Best Actor - Musical or Comedy over Leonardo DiCaprio and Eddie Murphy was a welcome surprise. Awkwafina made history as the first Asian-American to ever win an acting award at the Golden Globes. Laura Dern’s upset win over Jennifer Lopez for Best Supporting Actress is causing confusion in the gay community (Dern winning, yay! JLo losing, no!). Other surprises include Elton John and Bernie Taupin winning Best Original Song over Idina Menzel, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift; and ‘Missing Link’ winning Best Animated Feature Film over ‘Toy Story 4’ and ‘Frozen 2’.
On another note, I’m upset but not surprised ‘Parasite’ didn’t win best screenplay. But to lose to a film like ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’?! Sighs. Quentin Tarantino is usually a strong nominee in the screenplay categories, but I personally felt like his latest film was his worst. At least ‘Parasite’ won something, Best Foreign Language Film, but we all knew it would.
Television
Unfortunately, I don’t keep up with television as much as I do with film. There’s just too much good TV nowadays, and too little time to watch it all, especially in the age of streaming and where new content appears every single day! I will say I’m pleased to see ‘Game of Thrones’ was shut out of the Best Television Series - Drama category. That last season was just plain bad. The big snub here is no ‘Watchmen’ nomination, which is surprising since it’s quite possibly the best show on television this year, if not the past decade. The big surprise here is Apple got its first nomination with ‘The Morning Show’.
Honestly, I don’t have that many thoughts on the television side because I literally haven’t seen most of these nominees. I’ve only seen ‘The Politician’, ‘The Morning Show’, and ‘Game of Thrones’.
Closing Thoughts
The only reason I continue to watch The Golden Globes is because it’s usually a more entertaining show compared to The Oscars. I’ve enjoyed each time Ricky Gervais has hosted in the past, and my favorite duo Amy Poehler and Tina Fey co-hosting was always a blast. The winning speeches are often times worth listening to (we got this gem, didn’t we?). Anywho, I look forward to seeing what films get nominated at The Oscars in the coming weeks. Let’s hope the quality of their nominees are better than what we’ve seen here at The Globes.
