Golden Globes to Announce 2024 Nominations
To many, the Golden Globe Awards are a perfect example of Hollywood’s two faces.
In public, the entertainment capital plays along: It’s an honor just to be nominated, giggle tee-hee, this event is an absolute delight.
In private, smiles drop and eyes roll: The prizes are not seen as meaningful markers of artistic excellence, but there is no way around them. From a business perspective, the Globes represent a crucial marketing opportunity for winter films and TV shows.
The nominations for the 81st ceremony, which will be televised by CBS on Jan. 7, will be announced on Monday morning by Cedric the Entertainer and Wilmer Valderrama.
The Golden Globes have long been positioned as an important campaign stop for Oscar hopefuls. Nomination voting for the 96th Academy Awards begins on Jan. 11.
In truth, the impact may be overblown. “The Fabelmans” won 2023 Globes for best film drama and best director, while “The Banshees of Inisherin” was named best film comedy or musical, also picking up Globes for acting and screenwriting. Neither film won anything at the Academy Awards.
The companies behind the Globes hope that next month’s installment marks a turning point for the beleaguered enterprise.
In June, California officials agreed to a complicated reorganization plan that dissolved the troubled Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which invented the awards in 1944 as a way to gain access to celebrities. As part of the deal to address an ethics, finance and diversity scandal, Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, which is part of Penske Media, bought the Golden Globe assets for an undisclosed price. (Penske controls the biggest Hollywood trade publications, which rely on awards-related advertising income.)
The new owners expanded the voting pool to about 300 journalists from around the world, with attention paid to diversity. Fewer than 100 people voted on the Globes until a couple years ago; as recently as 2021, there were no Black voters.
The January show will include two new categories — one for stand-up comedy on television and the other for blockbuster films, defined as taking in at least $100 million at the United States box office and $150 million worldwide. (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, introduced a category for “popular” movies in 2018 as part of an effort to boost viewer interest. The film establishment had a meltdown, and the academy backtracked. To compare, Hollywood responded with shrugs in September when the Globes announced a category dedicated to box office winners, perhaps revealing how little the Globes are regarded as actual honors.)
With the exception of the blockbuster category, which has eight slots, the categories now have six nominees, up from five. In other words, more stars to populate the televised ceremony and accompanying red carpet spectacle.
At least 20 nominees did not attend the most recent Globes. A hotel workers strike that involved the Beverly Hilton, where the Globes are scheduled to take place, could have prompted even more nominee no-shows in January. The Beverly Hilton and Unite Here, a union representing housekeepers, front desk attendants, servers and other workers at the hotel, saidFriday that they had reached a tentative deal for a new contract.
“Together, the iconic Beverly Hilton and its employees set the stage for the awards season, and we are delighted to be able to do so once again,” the union said in a statement.
The recipients of the Globes for lifetime achievement, one in film and the other in television, will be named in the coming weeks — along with a host for the ceremony, the spokeswoman said.
The standup comedian Jerrod Carmichael hosted the 2023 Globes, which attracted about 6.3 million viewers, down 10 percent from the 6.9 million for the televised Globes ceremony in 2021. (NBC refused to broadcast the event in 2022, citing the H.F.P.A.’s problems.)
To compare, the Oscars attract about 19 million viewers.
