Do the Golden Globes still matter?

In 2021, the Golden Globes were almost sidelined into extinction. A boycott by stars and their publicists following years of scandal came to a head when it became evident not one of the voters was Black. Celebrities refused to attend and broadcasters to cooperate. The ceremony was held behind closed doors. No press. No red carpet. No impact.

At the time, the general reaction was: good riddance. What merit was there in being celebrated by such a discredited society? And isn’t all that hoopla a bit distasteful in the age of Covid?

A year later, and the stars and cameras flooded enthusiastically back, lapping up a ceremony of gongs, glamour and endless mea culpas via a host – Jerrod Carmichael – who readily confessed he’d been hired as a conspicuous symbol of the organisation’s overhaul.

Why the U-turn? Had everyone been satisfied by the Globes’ admission of error and hiring a handful of diverse new voters? Perhaps. Also possible is that Hollywood noticed that without this raucous youngster to kick off proceedings, awards season lost a lot of its energy.

Momentum sputtered. Actors missed out on the chance to “audition” for those more prestigious gongs still being voted on – either by frocks, charm or assuming a role as an unfairly snubbed loser. Marketing opportunities for movies still in cinemas were lost.

The film industry might not respect the Golden Globes, but it didn’t know what it had until it was nearly gone. So the awards’ unreliability as an indication of quality is no longer of concern. Nor is its increasing shakiness as a bellwether of Oscars success.

Last year, only three of the 14 Golden Globe film category winners went on to pick up Oscars: best animation Pinocchio, and Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. And while that film swept the Academy Awards, the titles that won the Golden Globes’ best film trophies – The Banshees of Inisherin (best comedy or musical) and The Fabelmans (best drama) – went home from the Oscars empty-handed.

So, Hollywood has reconciled with the Globes’ lack of class and, potentially, taste? The benefits of attending still outweigh the embarrassments. Such a shift in thinking can perhaps be best illustrated by comparing what happened when each body made a blatant play for the mainstream.

In 2018, the Academy introduced a new category recognising “popular” movies, with hefty box office an eligibility requirement. So ferocious was the backlash, which many cited as evidence of selling out to superhero culture, plans were abandoned less than a month after being announced.

This year’s Globes will see the presentation of the inaugural award for cinematic and box office achievement for films grossing at least $100m (£79m) domestically and $150m internationally. The new prize was announced last September. Nobody batted an eyelid. With cinema still so vulnerable, beggars can’t be choosers.