Golden Globe Awards

The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every January, and has been a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year in the Academy Awards. The eligibility period for Golden Globes corresponds from January 1 through December 31. The Golden Globes were not televised in 1969–1972, 1979, and 2022. The 2008 ceremony was canceled due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike.
Currently, the Golden Globes Awards are owned and operated by Dick Clark Productions, following its sale by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on June 12, 2023.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) was founded in 1943 as the Hollywood Foreign Correspondent Association (HFCA) by Los Angeles–based foreign journalists seeking to develop a better-organized process of gathering and distributing cinema news to non-U.S. markets. One of the organization's first major endeavors was to establish a ceremony similar to the Academy Awards to honor film achievements. The 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, were held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at various venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
In 1950, some of the journalists in the HFCA broke away to form the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood (FPAH). It was the FPAH that instituted the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite, which was subsequently given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the new name for the organization when the FPAH and HFCA merged in 1955, minus the "Henrietta" name through 1980 (for the 1979 movie year).
The FPAH held its first World Film Favorite Festival on January 27, 1951, giving out Henrietta Awards in various categories. The award, an angel above a globe raised on four tall pillars, was named for the president of the FPAH, Henry Gris. Winners of the Henrietta for World Film Favorite were Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman. At the FPAH's second World Film Favorite Festival held January 26, 1952, the Henrietta was a large statuette of a naked woman holding a flower. Based on an international poll of 900 newspapers, magazines and radio stations, Alan Ladd and Esther Williams were presented the gold Henrietta for World Favorites. while silver Henriettas for "Best Young Box Office Personality" were presented to Leslie Caron, Tony Curtis, John Derek, Mitzi Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe and Patrice Wymore. At the third festival held on February 14, 1953, John Wayne and Susan Hayward won the gold Henriettas.
The HFCA continued to hold their Golden Globe Awards. In 1950, the HFCA had established a special honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as an international figure within the entertainment industry, the first award was presented to director and producer Cecil B. DeMille. The official name of the award thus became the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
In January 1954, the two organizations held a joint ceremony, and the following year, they merged under the new Hollywood Foreign Press Association name. The Henrietta Award was terminated, but the HFPA instituted a special award called World Film Favorite, a Golden Globe surmounted by an angel. Similar to the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite, the winner of the new HFPA Golden Globe was determined by a worldwide poll conducted by Reuters. This award, sometimes referred to as The Henrietta Award, was given out through 1980 for the 1979, movie year, when it was terminated.
The 13th Golden Globe Awards held in February 1956 saw the first Golden Globe in Television Achievement. The first three permanent television award categories, Best TV Series, Best TV Actor, and Best TV Actress, then made their debuts during the 19th Golden Globe Awards held in March 1962.
Beginning in 1963, the trophies commenced to be handed out by one or more persons referred to as "Miss Golden Globe", a title renamed on January 5, 2018, to "Golden Globe Ambassador". The holders of the position were, traditionally, the daughters or sometimes the sons of a celebrity, and as a point of pride, these often continued to be contested among celebrity parents.
In 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned (but not for the first time in its history). The New York firm Society Awards collaborated for a year with the HFPA to produce a statuette that included a unique marble and enhanced the statuette's quality and gold content. It was unveiled at a press conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show.
The Carol Burnett Award was created as a television counterpart to the Cecil B. DeMille Award, named after its first recipient in 2019, actress and comedian Carol Burnett.
Revenues generated from the annual ceremony have enabled the HFPA to donate millions of dollars to entertainment-related charities, as well as funding scholarships and other programs for future film and television professionals. The most prominent beneficiary is the Young Artist Awards, presented annually by the Young Artist Foundation, established in 1978 by Hollywood Foreign Press member Maureen Dragone, to recognize and award excellence of young Hollywood performers under the age of 21 and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically or financially challenged.
In 2021, the HFPA faced criticism for the lack of Black representation among its members. On May 3, 2021, the HFPA announced plans for a reform package, including a 50% increase in members over the next 18 months, as well as new positions, term limits, and practices to improve its accountability. However, Time's Up and a group of 100 PR firms criticized the lack of given timelines for filling some of the new management positions, arguing that they would not be completed soon enough to have any material impact on the cycle of the upcoming 79th Golden Globe Awards in January 2022. Time's Up further argued that the package "largely contains no specifics" nor "commitments to real accountability or change".
On May 7, 2021, both Amazon Studios and Netflix announced that they would stop their activities with the HFPA until sufficient actions on reforms are made. Other media companies followed suit on May 10, including NBC, who announced that it would not televise the 79th Golden Globe Awards, but that it would be open to televising the ceremony in 2023 if the HFPA were successful in its efforts to reform. WarnerMedia also boycotted the HFPA, while Tom Cruise returned the awards he had won for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia in solidarity.
Following these events, the HFPA released a timeline for its reforms, which would see the process completed by the week of August 2. On October 1, the HFPA released a list of 21 new members that it had recruited under these reforms, and named Todd Boehly (owner of ceremony producer Dick Clark Productions) as its "interim CEO". The HFPA then announced on October 15 that it still planned to hold the 79th Golden Globe Awards on January 9, 2022, with or without another media partner. With the televised absence of the Golden Globe Awards from NBC, the Critics Choice Association attempted to shift their Critics' Choice Movie Awards ceremony up a week in order to fill the void and increase their overall prestige, though it was later delayed due to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The 79th ceremony was conducted as a non-televised, private presentation, with limited guests (particularly beneficiaries of the HFPA's philanthropic activities) and strict COVID-19 protocol due to Omicron variant.
In July 2022, the HFPA approved a major restructuring, under which Boehly would establish a for-profit entity via his holding company Eldridge Industries (owner of Dick Clark Productions—which has produced the Golden Globes' telecast since 1993, as well as the entertainment trade publication The Hollywood Reporter) that will hold the Golden Globe Awards' intellectual property and oversee the "professionalization and modernization" of the ceremony, including "[increasing] the size and diversity of the available voters for the annual awards". The HFPA's philanthropic activities were to continue separately as a non-profit entity. NBC subsequently agreed to a one-year contract to air the 80th Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2023, which were moved to a Tuesday evening to avoid conflicting with the National Football League (whose regular season was recently extended into January) and the College Football Playoff National Championship (which was being hosted at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood).
On June 12, 2023, HFPA was rebranded to Golden Globe Foundation, and all Golden Globe Awards assets and intellectual property were acquired by DCP (whose ownership includes Penske Media Corporation, owner of fellow entertainment publications Deadline Hollywood and Variety) and Eldridge; the financial details of the purchase were not disclosed. The HFPA's philanthropic activities have been transitioned to Golden Globe Foundation.
The qualifying eligibility period for all nominations is the calendar year from January 1 through December 31.
Voice-over performances and cameo appearances in which persons play themselves are not eligible from all film and TV acting categories.
Films must be at least 70 minutes and released for at least a seven-day run in the Greater Los Angeles area, starting prior to midnight on December 31. Films can be released in theaters, on pay-per-view, or by digital delivery.
For the Best Foreign Language Film category, films do not need to be released in the United States. At least 51 percent of the dialogue must be in a language other than English, and they must first be released in their country of origin during a 14-month period from November 1 to December 31 prior to the Awards. However, if a film was not released in its country of origin due to censorship, it can still qualify if it had a one-week release in the United States during the qualifying calendar year. There is no limit to the number of submitted films from a given country.
A TV program must air in the United States between the prime time hours of 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. (or 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Sundays). A show can air on broadcast television, on basic or premium cable, or by digital delivery; it does not qualify if it is only on pay-per-view or via digital delivery of film. Also, a TV show must either be made in the United States or be a co-production financially and creatively between an American and a foreign production company. Furthermore, reality and non-scripted shows are disqualified.
A film cannot be entered in both the film and TV categories, and instead should be entered based on its original release format. If it was first aired on American television, then it can be entered into the TV categories. If it was released in theaters or on pay-per-view, then it should instead be entered into the film categories. A film festival showing does not count towards disqualifying what would otherwise be a TV program.
Actors in a TV series must appear in at least six episodes during the qualifying calendar year. Actors in a TV film or miniseries must appear in at least five percent of the time in that TV film or miniseries.
Entry forms for films need to be received within ten days of the official screening. TV programs should be submitted "as early as possible" before the deadline. For TV programs, they must merely be available to be seen by voters in any common format, including the original TV broadcast.
As of the 2023 ceremony, the HFPA removed a requirement that an exclusive press conference be hosted by the organization for each nominated film—a practice that had contributed to transparency issues.
Ballots to select the nominations are sent to voters in November, along with a "Reminder List" of eligible film and TV programs. Each HFPA member then votes for their top five choices in each category, numbering them 5 to 1, with 5 being their top choice. The nominees in each category are then the five selections that receive the most votes. The ranked voting is only used to break ties, with number 5 worth 5 points, number 4 worth 4 points, and so on.
After the nominations are announced in mid-December, voters receive the final ballots. The winner in each category is selected from among the nominees by plurality voting. In case of a tie, the winner is the one that had the most votes on the nomination ballot.
As of the 2024 ceremony, the voting body consisted of 310 individuals, including representatives of 76 countries, international journalists, and 95 members that were members of the HFPA.
The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, broadcast to 167 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars and the Grammy Awards. Since 2010, it was televised live in all United States time zones. Until Ricky Gervais hosted in 2010, the award ceremony was one of two major Hollywood award ceremonies (the other being the Screen Actors Guild Awards) that did not have a regular host; every year a different presenter introduced the ceremony at the beginning of the broadcast. Gervais returned to host the 68th and 69th Golden Globe Awards the next two years. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th, 71st and 72nd Golden Globe Awards in 2013 through 2015. The Golden Globe Awards' theme song, which debuted in 2012, was written by Japanese musician and songwriter Yoshiki Hayashi.
The HFPA had previously held a lucrative broadcasting agreement with NBC, which began televising the Golden Globes ceremony locally in Los Angeles in 1958, then nationally in 1964. However, in 1968, the Federal Communications Commission claimed the show "misled the public as to how the winners were determined" (allegations included that winners were determined by lobby; to motivate winners to show up to the awards ceremony winners were informed if they did not attend another winner would be named). The FCC admonished NBC for participating in the scandal. Subsequently, NBC refused to broadcast the ceremony from 1968 until after 1974.
Since 1993, Dick Clark Productions (DCP) had produced the ceremony with NBC as a broadcaster; DCP's involvement came at a time of instability for the Golden Globes, including reduced credibility and having lost its contract with CBS (the interim period saw it contract with cable network TBS to air the ceremony). Enthusiastic over Clark's commitment, the HFPA's contract contained an unusual provision granting DCP the role of producer in perpetuity, provided that it continued to maintain a broadcast rights agreement with NBC.
Due to threats of writers picketing the event as part of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, the 65th Golden Globe Awards ceremony was cancelled and replaced by an hour-long press conference to announce the winners. While NBC sought to be the exclusive broadcaster of the press conference, the network faced conflicts with the HFPA and Dick Clark Productions over the proposed coverage, including a demand for a rights fee, and concerns over plans to have Billy Bush and Nancy O'Dell of NBC's syndicated entertainment news program Access Hollywood serve as presenters. The HFPA subsequently announced that it would not restrict coverage of the press conference by other broadcasters. E! and TV Guide Network (who were typically known for red carpet coverage from major awards shows) both aired coverage of the press conference, as well as CNN. NBC declined to air the conference itself; the ceremony timeslot was filled by a Dateline NBC preview special, an hour-long results special hosted by Bush and O'Dell, and an Access Hollywood post-show also hosted by Bush and O'Dell.
In 2010, Dick Clark Productions reached an extension with NBC through 2018. However, the deal was negotiated without the HFPA's knowledge. The HFPA sued DCP over the deal, as well as claims that the company was attempting to sell digital rights that it did not hold; the HFPA had wanted a new contract that would grant them a larger share of revenue from the telecast. In April 2012, judge Howard Matz upheld the NBC perpetuity clause and ruled in favor of DCP, noting that the HFPA had a history of "unbusinesslike display[s] of misplaced priorities" and "[succumbing] to bouts of pronounced turmoil and personal feuds", in contrast to DCP, which had been "represented by one experienced executive who was adept at dealing fairly and effectively with the often amateurish conduct of HFPA." Matz pointed out examples of the HFPA's enthusiasm over the relationship and their desire to "not get cancelled", such as having disregarded its own bylaws by approving an extension in 2001 without a formal vote. The case was taken to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 2014, Dick Clark Productions and the HFPA reached a settlement; details were not released, but DCP committed to continue its role as producer through at least the end of its current contract with NBC, and to work with the HFPA to "expand the brand with unique and exciting entertainment experiences". NBC held a right of first refusal to renew its contract beyond 2018, but bidding was to be open to other broadcasters; in September 2018, NBC agreed to renew its rights to the Golden Globes through 2027, maintaining the current broadcast arrangement and the involvement of Dick Clark Productions.
In 2019 and 2020, NBC televised the late Sunday afternoon National Football League (NFL) playoff game (which had historically gone to another NFL broadcaster) as a lead-in to the Golden Globes. Because of the large viewership of NFL playoff games, this was intended to boost the Golden Globes' television ratings, which dropped 11% between 2017 and 2018. If the game ever went long, NBC planned to still air the Golden Globes in its entirety on a broadcast delay. The 2021 ceremony was then postponed to February 28 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema and on television, avoiding the NFL season altogether.
Per the aforementioned 2022 boycott, NBC declined to air the 2022 ceremony, then signed a one-year deal to televise the 2023 ceremony, moving it to a Tuesday evening to avoid conflicting with Sunday Night Football and the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship. In November 2023, DCP announced a one-year agreement to air the 81st ceremony on CBS and streaming on Paramount+, with the ceremony following CBS's afternoon NFL coverage. In March 2024, DCP announced a five-year agreement with CBS to continue airing the Golden Globes; the agreement also includes rights to the DCP-produced American Music Awards beginning in 2025, which had gone on hiatus after 2022 when its contract with ABC expired.
In acting categories, Meryl Streep holds the record for the most competitive wins with eight, followed by Alan Alda, Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, who have six awards each. Behind them are Ed Asner, Carol Burnett, Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Lange, Rosalind Russell, and Kate Winslet with five.
At the 46th Golden Globe Awards an anomaly occurred: a three-way tie for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama (Jodie Foster for The Accused, Shirley MacLaine for Madame Sousatzka, and Sigourney Weaver for Gorillas in the Mist).
In the category for Best Director, Elia Kazan leads with four wins, followed by Clint Eastwood, Miloš Forman, David Lean, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Oliver Stone with three wins each. Spielberg holds the record for most nominations with twelve. Francis Ford Coppola, Eastwood, and Steven Soderbergh are the only directors to receive two nominations in the same year. Barbra Streisand is the first woman to have won the award.
Barbra Streisand holds the record for most Golden Globes earned by an individual with ten awards, including both competitive and honorary categories, followed by Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep with nine awards each. Hanks winning as an actor and producer; all Streep wins were for acting; while Streisand prevails as an actress (3 times), composer, director, producer, as well as the non-competitive Henrietta Award (3 times). In addition, all three of them also received an honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award.
Meryl Streep also holds the record for most nominations with 33. Composer John Williams is second with 27.
Since the late 1950s, the HFPA had been racked by scandals and controversies. The organization had been criticized for the small size of its membership, the quality of the members, its exclusion of serious cinema journalists, and their closeness to the movie industry and stars. The Golden Globes under the HFPA were also accused of being bought or bartered, with the HFPA seemingly doling out nominations if not wins to studios, production companies, and stars who wooed HFPA members with gifts, press junkets and personal attention.
Former HFPA president Henry Gris resigned from the board in 1958 claiming that "certain awards are being given more or less as favors" with others querying why so many winners were represented by one public relations firm.
The FCC imposed a ban on NBC's broadcast of the Golden Globes after the February 1968 ceremony. Movie critic Rex Reed, in a contemporary article about the broadcast, wrote:
The FCC was spurred to action because the public had been misled as to how the awards were actually made. Golden Globe broadcast advertisers determined Golden Globe winners and the HFPA pressured nominees to attend the award ceremony by threatening to award the Golden Globe won by a non-attendee to a losing nominee who was at the ceremony. The ban lasted until 1974.
After the ban, NBC once again broadcast the awards ceremony, but it terminated its contract with the HFPA after the Pia Zadora scandal of 1982 (see below).
In 1982, Pia Zadora won a Golden Globe in the category "New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture" for her performance in Butterfly, over such competition as Elizabeth McGovern (Ragtime) and Kathleen Turner (Body Heat). Accusations were made that the Foreign Press Association members had been bought off. Zadora's husband, multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis, flew voting members to his casino, the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, which gave the appearance that they voted for Zadora to repay this. Riklis also invited voting members to his house for a lavish lunch and a showing of the film. He also spent a great deal on advertising. Furthermore, Zadora had made her film debut some 17 years earlier as a child performer in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
In 2011, three days before the Golden Globe Awards telecast, publicist Michael Russell filed a $2 million lawsuit alleging that HFPA President Philip Berk terminated Russell and his partner's contract after the 2010 broadcast because they raised ethical concerns over payola with him, including allegations that HFPA members took bribes for nominations and awards. The lawsuit alleged that HFPA members "abuse their positions and engage in unethical and potentially unlawful deals and arrangements which amount to a 'payola' scheme." The HFPA denied the allegations, claiming they were fabrications made up by a disgruntled ex-employee. The lawsuit was later settled.
The nominations for the 2011 Golden Globes drew initial skepticism, as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated The Tourist in its Best Musical/Comedy categories, even though it was originally advertised as a spy thriller, along with being one of the most panned films of the season. Host Ricky Gervais even jokingly asked the main star of the film, Johnny Depp, if he had seen it. Depp's co-star Angelina Jolie reportedly had personally lobbied HFPA members, resulting in a nomination in a category the film did not belong in. Rumors then surfaced that Sony, the distributor of The Tourist, had influenced Globes voters with an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas, culminating in a concert by Cher. The lobbying by Sony also resulted in a Best Musical/Comedy nod for Cher's badly-reviewed movie Burlesque.
In 2020, the HFPA received widespread criticism for nominating Asian and Asian American films, such as The Farewell, Parasite, and Minari, for Best Foreign Language Film while excluding them from the Best Motion Picture categories. The decision to categorize Minari as a foreign language film, despite having an exclusively American production team and setting, was heavily condemned by many actors and filmmakers of Asian descent. While HFPA rules stipulate that a film must have at least 50% English dialogue to be nominated for the Best Drama or Comedy/Musical categories, critics noted that the films Inglourious Basterds and Babel did not meet the 50% threshold but were still nominated for the Best Motion Picture categories, prompting accusations of anti-Asian racism.
In the 2020s, the HFPA began to face criticism for the ethical standards of its operations—including allegations that the organization lacked accountability, and that there was a lack of Black representation among its members. Calls for reform in response to these issues resulted in the 79th Golden Globe Awards being boycotted by its broadcaster and other production companies; as a result, the ceremony was held as a non-televised, private event. A televised ceremony returned the following year.