Steve Pond: Can the Golden Globes Nominations Give the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Some Credibility?

Can the Golden Globes Nominations Give the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Some Credibility? No images? [Click here]( ID=167008;size=700x180;setID=347001;uid={EMAIL}7186378;click=template_awards_beat [Awards Beat with Steve Pond] December 9, 2022 [- - -] Can the Golden Globes Nominations Give the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Some Credibility? It seems unlikely, but a strong slate of nominees wouldn’t hurt [- - -] By Steve Pond [Golden Globes statues] Getty Images After the stars-free, non-televised afterthought of an awards show the Hollywood Foreign Press Association put on in January, the Golden Globes are back. Maybe. But in what form? And will anybody care? As the HFPA prepares to announce the nominations for its 80th annual show on Monday morning, Dec. 12, the answers to those questions have yet to be determined. But it’s safe to say that all is not hunky-dory with the organization and its annual shindig. True, the HFPA is proceeding with its plans to put on a full-scale Globes show, one that will be televised on NBC just the way it was back in the days before the industry told the group to clean up its act or get lost. But there are still warning signs for the Globes, both from external and internal sources. The timeline is instructive. In July, seven months after the private Globes show (pop quiz: who won?), the HFPA approved a restructuring that would create a for-profit organization owned by billionaire investor Todd Boehly in place of the former nonprofit, and also add 200 new international voters who would not become members but would make the voting body bigger and more diverse. That same month, the Critics Choice Association announced that the next Critics Choice Awards would take place on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023, which put that show in what seemed to be its usual slot, which in recent years had normally been a week after the Golden Globes. In August, press outlets with ties to Boehly floated rumors that the Golden Globes show would return to NBC, which had dropped the ceremony in 2021 over the lack of Black voters at the HFPA and charges of various ethical lapses. But before those reports had been confirmed, the American Film Institute said that its awards luncheon would take place on Friday, Jan. 13 and BAFTA Los Angeles scheduled its tea party for Saturday, Jan. 14. ID=167008;size=300x250;setID=284833;uid={EMAIL}7186378;click=template_awards_beat These were significant announcements because for years AFI and BAFTA had timed their annual events to run as a prelude to the Golden Globes. The schedule was always the same: AFI on Friday, BAFTA on Saturday and the Globes on Sunday. For those organizations to schedule their events right before the Critics Choice Awards without waiting to see if and when the Globes would happen was a slap at the HFPA and a boost to the CCA, which would like nothing more than to be seen as a less-tainted Globes alternative. The following month, despite skepticism from studios and publicists that had not yet embraced the HFPA’s new model, NBC and the HFPA signed a one-year deal. That single-year term was another clear sign that things were not business as usual — and so was the announcement that the Globes would take place on Tuesday, Jan. 10 rather than the Sunday-night spot it had occupied every year since 2008. On the face of it, a Tuesday-night Globes seemed to be a concession that the 2023 show was still a work in progress and would not be as big a deal as a Sunday show. At the same time, the HFPA retained its looser submission rules (which meant they could nominate movies and TV shows that hadn’t filled out forms and might not want to be associated with them) and eliminated the once-mandatory HFPA press conferences (long a thorn in the side of talent dismayed by dumb questions). The official explanation for the move to Tuesday was that NBC was committed to “Sunday Night Football” on Jan. 8 and that the college football championship game (broadcast on ESPN) was taking place on Jan. 9. But the effect was to diminish the Globes and boost the Critics Choice Awards, and perhaps to make the Globes less of a must on the awards calendar. And it didn’t help when those proposed 200 new voters were essentially cut in half, with only 103 new, international non-members recruited to cast ballots and beef up the body of voters. Will those new faces have a visible impact on the nominations when they’re revealed on Monday morning? Will the HFPA unveil a smart, diverse, entirely credible slate that helps it come back from the publicist-induced exile? [Continue reading Steve Pond’s Awards Beat column here](. Read Steve Pond’s other Awards Beat coverage [HERE](#). [- - -] [Follow us on Facebook]( [Follow us on Twitter]( [Follow us on Instagram]( [Follow us on Linkedin]( TheWrap 1808 Stanford Street, Santa Monica, CA, 90404 [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. If you are no longer interested you can [unsubscribe instantly](.