The 79th Golden Globe Awards this year, which is set to happen on January 9, will go ahead with no audience or media, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced on Tuesday. In fact, the event will also see no celebrity presenters, Variety has reported.
This comes at a time when HFPA, Golden Globes’ curator, came under fire after an LA Times investigation revealed that there were no black members among the 87 HFPA members. The organisation was thus, boycotted by Netflix and Amazon Studios, along with several other studios. Its broadcasting partner NBC also distanced itself after the controversy. Following the report, Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globe awards, while other celebrities such as Scarlett Johanssen and Mark Ruffalo asked others in Hollywood to “step back” from the HFPA.
The HFPA was further criticised for the Golden Globe nominations in its 2021 edition for not including Oscar frontrunners Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods, both of which are black-led films.
According to the report in Variety, an email from a talent booker for the Golden Globes indicated that showrunners were inquiring about celebrities joining the show to present, but sources revealed that no famous faces agreed to present, likely considering the backlash.
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However, according to the press release by HFPA, it is “because of the current pandemic surge”.While it has been stated that the awards will be revealed from the Beverly Hilton on January 9 it has not been mentioned whether the show will be televised, or how the winners will be revealed.
It is also unclear as to how the association plans on broadcasting the event this year with NBC out of the equation. The nominations were announced on its YouTube channel this year and were read out by singer and rapper Snoop Dogg.
Post the backlash, the HFPA announced a reform plan and also added 21 new members in what it describes as its “most diverse class to date.”