You might have missed it, but the Golden Globe awards ceremony took place earlier this month, although it did so with no fanfare. The event wasn’t televised and took place without any stars of stage or screen present; this was mainly due to the fact that the voting body had been accused by many of lacking diversity and that corruption was rife within it.
Winner Andrew Garfield Spiderman
Nonetheless, the Golden Globes is still considered the second most popular awards ceremony in the world of tv and film, behind the Academy Awards, and the results and winners were still eagerly anticipated.
The absence of a host, clips from films, and the usually emotionally charged reactions to winning was keenly felt, and it was left to posts on social media to announce the winners of the awards. Not even a royalty-free stock footage shot overhead of the stars walking up and down a red carpet, all reduced to tweets and Facebook posts.
On the night, there were big wins for West Side Story and The Power of the Dog and wins in key awards that would help to allay fears of a lack of diversity within its organization affecting the choice of winners.
King Will
In the acting category, Will Smith took the Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture - drama for his role in the biopic of Richard Smith, father to tennis superstars and cultural icons Serena and Venus Williams. It’s a win that signals a possibility that the actor might take home the Oscar, having previously been nominated twice for Ali and the Pursuit of Happyness.
The best film award in the drama category went to The Power of the Dog, with its director Jane Campion taking the best director award for the western though favorite Benedict Cumberbatch lost out to Will Smith in the acting award.
West Side Story picked up a host of awards, including the best film in the comedy and musical category and its stars Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose picking up best actress in a comedy or musical and best-supporting actress in the same category.
Other winners include Andrew Garfield, who may or may not appear in the latest Spider-Man movie, as he picked up the best actor in the drama or musical category for his magnificent portrayal of Jonathan Larson, who wrote Rent and other musicals before his untimely death at the age of 35.
In other categories, Dune won for best original score, Hans Zimmer picked up yet another award for his work, and Billie Elish’s theme song for James Bond’s 25th outing, No Time to Die, earned her a Golden Globe for best original song.
The best-animated feature went to Encanto, the Disney movie that saw off competition from a number of strong contenders.
Succession
The Golden Globes also presents a number of awards in TV categories, and the big winner in this department came in the form of Succession, which picked up a host of awards, including the best drama series.
One of its leads, Jeremy Strong, won the award for the best actor in a TV drama for his portrayal of Kendall in the hugely well-respected show, seeing off competition from his TV father, Brian Cox.
Sarah Snook, who plays Strong’s sister, won for best-supporting actress for Succession also.
Kate Winslet won for best actress in a limited tv series or TV movie for Mare of Easttown, which was another big hit show of the last year. Michael Keaton picked up the best actor in that category for Dopestick.
Subdued Event
The event took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, but most of the celebrity attendees did so virtually as the awards took place via an online live stream. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which runs the Golden Globes, chose to run a subdued version of what is usually a glittering occasion as an act of contrition following the criticism it faced.
A report by the Los Angeles Times ran a damning expose on the HFPA, during which they reported that the association includes no black members, and this led to the group announcing it would seek to diversify and update its membership.
Clearly, this isn’t something they could achieve overnight, and as such, the decision to hold the awards in this manner was probably the right thing to do.
It should be noted that the decision to do so was in doubt a reaction to the broadcast being dropped by NBC, who usually air the event.
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