On the evening of the last day of February, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association once again invited nominees from the field of film and television to see if they were worthy in the 78th edition of the Golden Globes. Rather than gather in person however, the awards were done remotely, with Tina Fey presenting from the Rainbow Room at NYC, Amy Poehler at the Beverly Hills Hilton, and the guests being medical workers present by invitation while the nominees were at home or hotel rooms. In line with this recourse, it is no surprise that the TV section nominees and winners were streaming platforms, but there is more to it.

As CNBC puts it, the latest edition of the Golden Globes has been back and forth when it comes to diversity in nominees and winners. Best Drama and Musical/Comedy went to “Nomadland” and “Borat Subsequent MovieFilm” respectively, with no film featuring an African-American lead or cast got nominated. Instead, individuals from that sector prevailed in the acting categories. Daniel Kaluuya for won Best Supporting Performance (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) while Andra Day won Best Actress – Drama for his role as Billie Holliday. But the most prominent victor is with Best Actor – Drama, which went to the late Chadwick Boseman for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Other notable movie winners are Disney-Pixar’s “Soul,” which streamed on Disney+ in lieu of a theatrical release due to COVID. It also won Best Original Score, with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor being one of the awardees. Also interesting is the Best Foreign Language film winner, “Minari,” which is American-produced (A24) but with language primarily in Korean, about South Korean immigrants in 1980s rural California.

On the TV section, Netflix remained pretty dominant with nominees in nine categories and winners in six. British-Nigerian actor John Boyega was another winning Black performance for Prime Video’s “Small Axe,” while Netflix’s Queen Elizabeth II biopic drama “The Crown” won 4 Golden Globes. Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” and new Netflix miniseries “Queen’s Gambit” each got two wins to round out the multi-winning TV nominees. In the special awards, veteran Jane Fonda received the Cecil B. DeMille Award while sitcom writer-producer Norman Lear got its TV counterpart, the Carol Burnett.

While there is a notable posthumous winner in Chadwick Boseman, the Golden Globes have not done an “In Memoriam” special feature as part of its program for years. Their rationale is that other awards ceremonies already do them, so they do not have to follow.

Image courtesy of USA Today