Hey there. Sploich here.
It will forever astound me the way people act as if anything that happens at the Golden Globes actually matters. It’s become such a humongous event and yet the voting behind what gets nominated and wins is incredibly false and the way people act while at the ceremony is shockingly trashy.
For reference on why I hate the Globes so much, let me explain exactly what the ceremony is. The Golden Globes are held every year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, an organization devoted to the preservation of films as well as, and most importantly, exploiting the hell out of movies in foreign markets. There are 93 members of the HFPA, compared to the "over 6000" members of AMPAS, according to Wikipedia. In both cases the total members vote on the nominees and winners, but the HFPA is, as their name suggests, made up of the press. And the press wants, more than anything, to have a good headline. This is how movies and television programs like Bridesmaids or Hung (respectively) get nominated. They’re not the kind of shows that would actually get nominated at shows where merit is what’s being awarded like at the Oscars or the Emmys. They are the movies and shows that the foreign press wants to sell to overseas markets. This is why a movie like Avatar won Best Drama a couple years ago when it was up against the likes of Precious, Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker. Nobody thought that was the best movie of the year, but they knew that was what people would want to see as the headline: "Avatar Wins Best Picture." That’s part of the reason the movie kept going to the ludicrous box office heights it gained.
I know I’m sounding incredibly cynical right now, which is something I try very hard not to be, but the idea that the press throws a giant ceremony every year to push names the way they even admittedly do just seems like a big joke to me. This is just me venting about something that has bothered me for years. And honestly, I don’t really know if the Globes have any impact on the Oscars or even the domestic box office in the long-run. The way the celebrities act at the Globes, continually talking while people are trying to present, getting completely wasted off of the wine and constantly walking around to other tables really makes me wonder how much they actually care about the award. It’s very casual, despite the attire, and I’m sure it’s a lot of fun for them while they’re there, but the atmosphere makes it hard to take the whole thing seriously.
I’m going to stop venting now. I’ll be back with my thoughts on the Academy Award nominees when they come out on January 24, and until then you can check out my nominee predictions at Sploich.com. I’ll be getting a lot of reviews out in the next couple of months. February in particular is going to be incredibly busy for me, so keep an eye out!