(Los Angeles) After a ceremony shunned by Hollywood last year, the Golden Globes must announce new nominations on Monday and hope to extract themselves from the scandals of racism, sexism and corruption which have destroyed their prestige.
These awards open the film awards season in the United States and are traditionally the most watched after the Oscars. But the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which constitutes their jury, has been in turmoil since revelations about its questionable practices in early 2021.
The last Golden Globes were awarded without an audience or television last January. After carefully put forward reforms, the organization hopes to get out of the rut for its 80e editing.
Its historic partner, the NBC channel, has agreed to rebroadcast the 2023 ceremony, which will take place on January 10 in Beverly Hills.
It remains to be seen whether the Hollywood gratin is ready to return their letters of nobility to the Golden Globes. The presence or not of the selected stars will be closely monitored.
Two headliners are already in danger of being conspicuous by their absence: Tom Cruise, who was a hit at the box office with Top Gun: Maverickand Brendan Fraser, praised for his role as an obese professor recluse at home in The Whale.
Faced with the scandals that rocked the HFPA, Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globes in protest. And Brendan Fraser has already warned that he would boycott the ceremony if he is selected.
“It’s because of the history I have with them. And my mom didn’t raise me as a hypocrite,” the magazine recently told QG the actor, who accuses the former HFPA president of sexually assaulting him in 2003.
The former leader in question, Philip Berk, who denies the accusation, was dismissed from the organization for calling “Black Lives Matter” a “hateful racist movement”.
His removal in the spring came after a turbulent year for the HFPA, mired in member corruption scandals and singled out for its lack of diversity.
Reforms
Since these controversies, the organization has notably renewed its members, including 103 new entrants.
The Golden Globes jury is now made up of 52% women and 51.5% people from ethnic minorities. The HFPA also banned its members from accepting luxurious gifts and all-expenses-paid hotel stays from studios courting their voices.
“It’s really not the old HFPA anymore,” assured the HollywoodReporter its president Helen Hoehne.
“I respect Brendan Fraser’s decision. […] And personally, I sincerely hope that there is a way for us to move forward and regain the trust of Mr. Fraser, as well as the trust of the entire audiovisual industry,” she added. .
But in Hollywood, some remain skeptical. In July, the HFPA, which is a non-profit association, announced that it would hand over the organization of the Golden Globes to a company created by American billionaire Todd Boehly. The terms of this agreement provide for the payment of an annual salary to HFPA members.
Away from those considerations, the organization will focus on the past year in TV and film on Monday, with nominations split into two main categories, unlike the Oscars: “drama” and “comedy or musical.”
The very intimate The Fabelmans by Steven Spielberg, taken from the childhood of the American director, is a favorite for the prize for best dramatic film.
The second part of Top Gun, Elvisan extravagant biographical film by Baz Luhrmann about the life of the King of rock’n’roll Elvis Presley, and the feature film Women Talkingwhich features female victims of sexual assault within a religious community, should also be selected.
Side comedies, the hair-raising Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, where Michelle Yeoh portrays a mother washed out by paperwork and daily worries, suddenly plunged into parallel universes, is approached for a nomination. Just like the rest of the saga Glass Onionwith Daniel Craig as a detective, and the very Irish The Banshees of Inisherin with Colin Farrell.