A few months ago, when the nominations for the 78th Golden Globe Awards were announced, some wondered aloud whether the prestigious awards show, second only to the Oscars, was “a celebration of cinematic excellence” or, rather, “a clown college graduation ceremony”. In May 2021, it seems that we have our answer, as confirmed by the US TV network NBC who are choosing to boycott the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and, by extension, their truly uninspiring choice of nominees.
Despite having aired the ceremony since 1996, NBC has said it will not broadcast the show in 2022, asking to see “meaningful reform” before they do. The HFPA had already come under fire a few months ago when, as reported in the Los Angeles Times, it transpired that a number of its voting members had allegedly been bribed, following the announcement of two Golden Globe nominations for the widely-derided Netflix show Emily in Paris. Worse still, the LA Times report revealed that the HFPA had not had a single Black member on its voting board for 20 years.
On Monday, NBC explained the logic behind its decision to boycott the awards ceremony. “We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right,” said a spokesperson for the media giant. “As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes,” they added. “Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023.”
Several major industry leaders, including Amazon Studios, have already pledged not to work with the HFPA until the introduction of meaningful policy to address these issues of diversity and corruption. Just last week, Netflix — who received more nominations and wins than any other studio or network (42 and 10 if we’re being exact about it) — announced it would be “stopping any activities” with the association, calling its plan and timetable to improve their demographics and ethics policies “unacceptable”. Get her, Jade!
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