Movies barbie And Oppenheimera duo of feature films that topped the box office this summer, dominated the Golden Globe nominations on Monday.
A true cultural and commercial phenomenon, the film barbie by American Greta Gerwig is nominated nine times, notably in the categories “best comedy”, “best director” and “best song” (with three titles in the list).
Oppenheimera tortuous portrait of the designer of the atomic bomb directed by Christopher Nolan, has eight nominations, notably in the “best dramatic film” and “best director” categories.
In addition to the “Barbenheimer” duo, the nominations podium is completed by the films Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese and Poor creatures by Yorgos Lanthimos, with seven nominations each.
The Golden Globes, the first awards ceremony of the season in the United States, will also honor television series Succession And The Last Of Us.
They will be held in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, and will be broadcast by the national network CBS, owned by the cinema giant Paramount, which replaced its competitor NBC.
With this change of broadcaster, a reshuffled jury and new owners, the Golden Globes are trying to boost their audiences and put aside the controversies of the past.
Worst audience score
Once placed just behind the Oscars in terms of audience, the “Globes” only attracted 6.3 million viewers in 2023, their worst audience score, after 18 million at the start of 2020, just before the COVID pandemic. -19.
A collapse despite the presence of heavyweights in the film industry like Steven Spielberg, Colin Farrell, Brad Pitt and Michelle Yeoh.
This year, other big names — Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr and Ryan Gosling — are expected. We could also see Paul Giamatti, Bradley Cooper, Timothée Chalamet and Natalie Portman. Last January, Cate Blanchett shunned the ceremony.
It has lost its luster due to accusations of racism and corruption, and some critics in Hollywood say the reforms raise new ethical questions.
For decades, the Golden Globes were owned, operated and awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). An eclectic group of around a hundred journalists covering the entertainment section for international media, often criticized by industry professionals for its amateurism and opacity.
These behind-the-scenes barbs came to light in 2021, when the Los Angeles Times had revealed that the organization had no black people and that its members accepted incredible gifts.
Quest for redemption
The ceremony was then boycotted the following year by Hollywood and remains in search of redemption.
The Golden Globes were bought in June by investors, including American billionaire Todd Boehly. The HFPA was disbanded and a new plan adopted to try to restore its former prestige.
Members of the old HFPA are now employees of the new Golden Globes corporation, paid to watch films, vote and write articles for the organization’s website.
A situation potentially leading to conflicts of interest.
Especially since some of the new owners are essential players in the industry. Like the production company Penske Media, which owns the magazines Variety And The Hollywood Reporteror the Eldridge company, which owns a stake in the A24 film studio, regularly in the running for Hollywood awards.
“There is something inappropriate about a Globes voter being paid to write on the Globes website about an actor he might nominate for a Golden Globe being brought back to the stage. a ceremony to the company for which he works”, recently pointed out the LA Times in an editorial.
For the newspaper, “the new model seems to be a gigantic public relations machine”.
But the new Golden Globes are defending themselves.
According to the organization, paying a salary of $75,000 to voters in Hollywood puts an end to a flawed system, where precarious journalists, often independent, accepted sumptuous gifts and luxurious all-expense-paid press trips from the studios.
More than 200 non-member, and therefore unpaid, voters from around the world were also designated for greater impartiality. And the new board includes respected industry veterans, like the ex-editor of VarietyTim Gray.