Golden Globes 2021 Reactions

As predicted the 2021 Golden Globes were a hot mess. While we commend the writers of the speeches at the HFPA (we’re not sure how closely tied they are to the actual HFPA leadership) for addressing head on in the opening monologue the utter lack of Black critics in the organization, the evening actually led to some much larger issues. Let’s explore the ripple effect of how the lack of Black voting members hurts winners and nominees of color. 

First we need to take a step back and talk about what DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) actually stands for. The idea is to address the structural racism and biases that exists in most if not all systems. It is not about arbitrarily elevating People of Color, Women, or other less-privileged identities. It’s about making sure they are given the same opportunities that larger bodies (primarily Caucasian people at this point) have been systematically been advantaged with. 

A common example is the blind resume test. If you had two nameless job resumes side by side and one clearly had more objective experience, you’d pick the one with more qualifications, wouldn’t you? Ok well now add names to those resumes, say one is John Smith and one is Jane Smith. This doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what happens when the name reads as “Non-White.”

As studies have shown biases kick in and qualified candidates suddenly start getting filtered out earlier than they should have, and don’t even get the opportunity to INTERVIEW for said job. Like tends to hire like, and because many systems are currently full of White, male leadership at the top you can see how they are prone to let unconscious bias guide them. 

It’s a lack of understanding that DE&I is about leveling playing fields so we remove those unconscious biases and in a comparative situation actually are able to evaluate candidates (or in the case of the Golden Globes, performances) in a somewhat objective way. Something like art is of course subjective by nature, but the general concept still applies. 

So how did the Globes actually set back this issue this year? 

The acting categories, which we’d generally say are the most popular, went to a good portion of Black performers. As the wider entertainment industry calls out the HFPA (and they’ve been called out before and clearly we still haven’t seen much result) it makes us wonder, “did the voting occur after they were called out?”

Were these wins actual wins? Or were they guilt votes cast in an attempt to show that “we’re not racist even though we don’t have any Black members!”? 

This is utterly unfair to the performers, several of whom we do legitimately think should have won their categories. However the lack of certain nominees to start (we’re looking at the overlooked I May Destroy You in particular) showed that the HFPA was not coming into the 2021 Globes much objectivity to start. The trotting out of several Black performers as presenters, the inclusion of Spike Lee’s kids as the Globes ambassadors, all of it reeked of a certain sense of “we swear we at least have Black friends!” 

We hate that this scenario casts a sense of doubt over these accomplishments. Until we take further steps towards Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, this will continue happening. 

In addition to that huge storm cloud over the telecast, it was overall underwhelming. We don’t fault the producers of the show since trying to put anything of this scale together remotely is chaotic at best. However since we knew the categories weren’t going to make any sense we only felt a feeling of dread as we watched.

We do have to give a special shout out to Jane Fonda who won the Cecil B. deMille Award, Fonda dedicated her time to advocating for overlooked diverse groups. This is not the first (nor hopefully the last) time Fonda has used the spotlight on her to highlight deserving causes.

FILM

Best Picture — Drama

Nomadland – If you’d asked us before the ceremony we’d have picked this. After watching the nearly 3 hour bloated ceremony we weren’t so sure this is how it would go. But at the end of the day the HFPA still voted along the lines almost every other critics group did. 

Best Picture — Comedy or Musical

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – We always love hearing Sacha Baron Cohen speak, we also thought the film was brilliant and timely (but also don’t think we could survive seeing it again). 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Except for the legacy awards, this is about the only other guaranteed win. We can’t fault the speech his wife gave though. 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday – We’re withholding judgement here because we still haven’t had a chance to see the film yet. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – Again we do love hearing Baron Cohen’s biting speeches. 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Rosamund Pike, I Care a Lot – This film was not at all funny (nor was it a musical). This is one of those wins where we wonder if the HFPA critics saw a completely different cut of the film than we did. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah – This was absolutely the correct choice, but much like Boyega’s win it did make us wonder if this was a diversity guilt vote (even though it was still the most deserving performance here). 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Jodie Foster, The Mauritanian – Foster says she didn’t expect to win again and we certainly didn’t expect her to win for this.

Best Director — Motion Picture

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland – There was lots of worrying that (in spite of Bryce Dallas Howard pointing out that for the first time there were three female nominees in the category) Sorkin or Fincher could be the winners. While Nomadland wasn’t our favorite film of last year we still have the utmost respect for Zhao, particularly her ability to direct non-actors. Zhao is the first Asian woman and only second woman ever to win this category.

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture

Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Sorkin has written some great pieces in his time but they’ve all started to sound alike. This is far from his best work or anything close to original from him. 

Best Motion Picture — Animated
Soul – We’re celebrating this win.

Best Picture — Foreign Language

Minari – It’s pleasantly surprising to see this winning but also simultaneously disappointing. This should have and could have been included in Best Picture Drama. Hell plenty of the other films in this category would have been preferable to the actual nominees. 

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste, Soul – Correct decision. Also, how lovely that they’re honoring Jon Batiste. There are some odd rules in certain awards guilds that are precluding Batiste being nominated alongside Reznor and Ross. 

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

Io Sì (Seen), The Life Ahead – We didn’t have strong feelings on this category in general. Congrats to the winners. 

Television

Best Television Series — Drama

Before the Golden Globes started airing we could have sworn of the Netflix shows that this would go to Ozark. Possibly because we don’t watch Ozark so we don’t know if it lives up to the buzz or compares. However once Diana and Charles won we realized this was inevitably going to The Crown. 

Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy

Schitt’s Creek – Well at least they didn’t Schitt the bed by not awarding Schitt’s Creek this award. Also bonus points to Dan Levy for calling the HFPA out tactfully in his awards speech. 

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

The Queen’s Gambit – We really did love the show. We do highly recommend watching Normal People and Small Axe. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama

Josh O’Connor, The Crown – The Best Actress win preceded this category in the telecast so we were already shocked by Emma Corrin’s win. Yet this is really wild. Sure, some of the other nominees aren’t on the greatest shows. It’s surprising the Ozark crew didn’t sweep, as The Crown felt like it was beginning to wind down popularity wise. 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama

Emma Corrin, The Crown – Of all The Crown nominees we find it slightly shocking that Emma won this. While we thoroughly enjoy The Crown we weren’t expecting her to dethroned the reigning queen of awards, Olivia Colman. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso – We have so many mixed feelings about this. While we absolutely love Ted Lasso, Eugene Levy really topped himself in the final season of Schitt’s Creek. 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek – This category should be as clear cut as they come, but the HFPA including some of the other nominees makes us question their logic at all. Thankfully sanity was prevailing.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much is True – This category was sort of a wash anyway. Mark Ruffalo seems like a really nice guy and the fact that he played two roles in the same project probably worked in his favor. 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit – As long as it wasn’t Nicole Kidman in this category we wouldn’t have quarreled with the results. We weren’t upset at Taylor-Joy’s win for this, we loved the show. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television

John Boyega, Small Axe – I’m very sad that Dan Levy wasn’t honored for his swan song season as David Rose. Boyega was of course great in Small Axe but given that they addressed up front that they need to do better in terms of Black inclusion, it did honestly make me wonder if this was a guilt vote. What we hate about this scenario is that it puts Boyega in an unfair position. 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television

Gillian Anderson, The Crown – Even before it became apparent that The Crown was the show to beat, we would still have guessed that of this lot she’d take home the 2021 Golden Globe for this. 

What did you think of the 2021 Golden Globes?