When the Golden Globes returned to NBC on Tuesday night after last year’s telecast was canceled amid concerns about the organization that gives out the awards, it was an open question whether Hollywood’s biggest stars would come back. Plenty did, making the evening feel in many respects like a return to shows of the past. Some didn’t. Jerrod Carmichael lost no time in addressing the elephant in the room–also the cause of the controversy that has roiled Hollywood’s award ceremonies in recent years, and explained to the audience at the Beverly Hilton how he wound up as the host (spoiler: “I’m here because I’m Black,” he quipped.
In the first Golden Globes telecast since the Hollywood Foreign Press Organization pledged wholesale reform, the president of the organization, Helen Hoehne, took the stage for brief remarks, in which she called the past year one of “momentous change” for the organization.
In 2021, The Los Angeles Times reported that there were zero Black members in the organization; now, there are six, as well as about 14 Black nonmember voters. Amid months of scrutiny, the association promised a complete restructuring that would address concerns about its financial and ethical practices.
“We commit to continue strengthening our partnership with Hollywood and with the worldwide fans who celebrate like we do the best in film and television,” Hoehne said at the ceremony. “We will continue to support groups that amplify a variety of voices and continue to add representation to our organization from around the world as we did this past year.”
Kyle Buchanan, writes, “The room was packed with celebrities, with only a handful of no-shows; the speeches were passionate and funny; and though Jerrod Carmichael took plenty of swings at the Golden Globes in his monologue, his shocking jokes later on about Tom Cruise and Whitney Houston were the ones guaranteed to go viral.” He concludes that, “It’s hard to imagine that this briefly dormant awards show airing on a Tuesday will encounter anything besides a ratings slide, but the entertainment value was there, and that’s really the thing the Globes have always sold.”
The “big one” the award for best motion picture drama, went to Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.” It’s the fifth time that a Spielberg-directed feature has clinched one of the Globes’ best-film statuettes: Just last year, his remake of “West Side Story” won the award for best comedy or musical.
Among the other winners, “The Bashees of Inisherin”, which led all movies with eight nominations, took home the best comedy film trophy, while Colin Farrell triumphed in the acting category and writer-director Martin McDonagh won for best screenplay. Meanwhile, Everything Everywhere All at Once prevailed in two dimensions, as Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan netted acting trophies.
See here for a complete list of the winners.
