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Journalism of Courage
The Golden Globe awards returned on television on Tuesday (January 10) after the cancellation of the 2022 edition’s telecast due to controversies around the organisation that decides what and whom to award.
The event, which took place in Los Angeles, was attended by some of the biggest Hollywood stars — dispelling concerns if they would turn up for the “Hollywood’s Party of the Year”. However, a handful of award winners didn’t arrive to collect their trophies.
Notably, during the show, Helen Hoehne, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — a non-profit group of international film journalists and photographers — took the stage to make a short speech and assured everyone that the organisation would continue diversifying itself, according to The New York Times.
Her comments came in the backdrop of a 2021 report published by The Los Angeles Times that revealed the HFPA didn’t have any black members and also brought accusations of ethical lapses and financial discrepancies to the limelight.
Since then, a lot has changed for the organisation. The Indian Express takes a look at the allegations against the HFPA and how it has rejigged its image over the past year
What was the controversy?
In February 2021, just a week before that year’s Golden Globe ceremony, The LA Times reported that out of 87 members (now the organisation has around 103 members) of the HPFA, there were a number of people of colour, but no one was black. Moreover, the group had not inducted any black members in nearly two decades. The revelations added fuel to the fire as the HPFA was already facing heat for not nominating black-centric movies like “Judas and the Black Messiah” and television shows such as “I May Destroy You” for the Golden Globe awards.
Although Helen Hoehne, who was the vice president of the HPFA at the time, promised to diversify the organisation, its troubles didn’t end there. A month later, The LA Times published another report, which said that Philip Berk, a member of the organisation and former eight-time president, criticised the Black Lives Matter movement and its co-founder in an email that he had sent to the HPFA staff. He called BLM a “racist hate movement.”
Earlier, Berk was accused of sexually assaulting actor Brendan Fraser, who said “Berk groped his butt at a 2003 HFPA luncheon”, according to a report by Insider. He was fired from the organisation later.
Apart from this, the organisation and its members were also accused of accepting gifts and freebies from studios and PR agencies who were campaigning for nominations.
What changes did HPFA make?
In the aftermath of the expose by the newspaper, the HPFA included six black journalists as its members and raised the total number to 103. In a press release, the organisation said, “This diverse voting group represents 62 different countries around the world. Combined with the current membership, the total Golden Globe Awards voting body is now 52% female, 51.8% racially and ethnically diverse, with 19.6% Latinx, 12.1% Asian, 10.1% Black, and 10.1% Middle Eastern.”
Moreover, it also banned its members from accepting any gifts and, according to a report by The LA Times, “instituted a hotline for reporting misconduct and quietly ejected a handful of members whom they have accused of violating its standards.”
In July 2022, the group voted to sell its Golden Globe assets to Eldridge Industries, a holding company of billionaire investor Todd Boehly — he became the interim CEO of the HPFA in October 2021.
As per reports, the organisation, which has been a non-profit association so far, will soon become for-profit and a separate non-profit entity will be established to continue the philanthropic endeavours of the HPFA. Members are said to receive $75,000 $75,000 annually for five years “to screen films and television series submitted for Golden Globes consideration, vote on nominations and winners, write content for the organisation’s website and organise materials for the awards show and group’s history”, said The LA Times.
What does the future hold for the award ceremony?
Despite these sweeping changes and ensuring the nomination and awarding of non-white artists, the future of the Golden Globe awards remains uncertain. In 2021, the telecast of the show on NBC was seen by just 6.9 million people — before the pandemic, it used to garner around 18 million views every year.
It isn’t just the Golden Globes awards that has seen a drop in viewership. Experts suggest the popularity of such shows has been waning for a few years now. According to a CNBC report, the 2021 Oscar witnessed a drop of 56 per cent in its viewership in comparison to 2020, while the Emmy Award registered a decrease of 14 per cent.
