The Golden Globes – long known as Hollywood’s favorite party, but rocked by recent scandals – will try to make a celebrity-filled comeback on Tuesday, as films from Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” to “Top Gun” and “Avatar” continue to compete at the top. appreciation.
The Globes traditionally play a key role in kick-starting the film awards season but were disbanded last year amid controversy over ethics violations and a lack of diversity at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the Beverly Hills gala.
80. Golden Globes
This year, after efforts to reform the HFPA – which previously had no Black members – NBC will broadcast the 80th Golden Globes Awards exclusively, and invitations have been sent to Tinseltown’s brightest stars.
A-listers expected in the ballroom at the Beverly Hilton include Spielberg, whose favorite semi-autobiographical film to win best drama, and Eddie Murphy, who will receive the career achievement award.
Comedian Jerrod Carmichael will host the ceremony, and Quentin Tarantino is one of the night’s presenters.
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But many of the top nominees have yet to confirm their attendance, and Deadline awards columnist Pete Hammond expects this year’s Globes to be “different” from the lavish bashes, loud parties, champagne seen before the Covid boycott and the industry disrupted the effort.
“They’re going to be silent. There’s no after-party. There’s nothing. They’re not spending big money, the studio, on all this,” Hammond told AFP.
People walking the red carpet will be asked questions from reporters like “Do you feel comfortable here?” and “Are you satisfied that they have made all the changes?” he predicted.
“It won’t be an exclusive ‘What are you wearing?'”
Spielberg, Cruise, Cameron
Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes film awards are divided between the “drama” and “comedy or musical” categories.
On the drama side, “The Fabelmans” is up against two of the biggest box office hits of the past year – the blockbuster sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” starring Tom Cruise, and James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water”.
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“Tar,” set in the cutthroat world of classical music, and rock-and-roll biopic “Elvis” can also spring surprises.
Their respective stars – Cate Blanchett, who plays the cruel conductor, and Austin Butler, in Presley’s blue suede shoes – are the winners for the drama acting prize.
But “The Whale” nominee Brendan Fraser, who alleges he was once sexually assaulted by the former president of the HFPA, has ruled out attending Tuesday’s gala.
Cruise, a producer on “Top Gun: Maverick,” will also not attend, after he returned three Globes to the HFPA in 2021 in protest of the behavior.
“The Banshees of Inisherin” holds the most nominations at this year’s Globes, with eight, and is the favorite to win best comedy, as well as best comedy actor for Colin Farrell.
The film about a broken friendship on a remote Irish island will compete with the surreal, multiverse-hopping sci-fi film “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” which is up for acting prizes for Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan.
‘scandal’
In years past, success at the Globes was a potential boon for films hoping to win an Oscar and a valuable marketing tool.
Indeed, Academy voters will begin voting for Oscar nominations on Thursday, just days after the Globes gala.
But the recent controversy has muddied the water.
The addition of more than 100 new racially diverse Globes Voters, who are not full HFPA members, makes it more difficult to predict who will be rewarded by the enigmatic group of foreign journalists.
As movie billboards and commercials boasting Globes nominees have returned after last year’s absence, some nominees have publicly thanked the HFPA.
According to Hammond, some in the industry privately want the old Globes back because the show is a “cog in the wheel of awards season” that “has been in Hollywood for 80 years.”
“You can’t buy tradition,” he said.
But rows over diversity, alleged corruption and a lack of professionalism have “reduced” the Sheen Globes when it comes to Oscar influence, Hammond said.
“When every (Globes) story talks about the scandal … it’s unbelievable, I think, to the Oscar voters,” he said.