Oscars 2024: The Golden Globes Are Back on CBS

Deadline reports that the Golden Globes will air on CBS on January 7th, and will stream on Paramount+ and the CBS app. That seems like a pretty good deal to me, as it includes people who have given up basic cable – yes, that is happening. Meet the new landline.  January 7th is not that far off. Let’s take a look at their schedule:

Monday, Nov. 20: Deadline for television nomination ballots to be sent to all voters

Monday, Nov. 27: Deadline for receipt of television nomination ballots by Ernst & Young at 5:00 p.m. PT

Tuesday, Nov. 28: Deadline for motion picture nomination ballots to be sent to all voters

Tuesday, Dec. 5: Final screening date for motion pictures; Final date for Golden Globes voters to attend non-exclusive, all-access motion picture press conferences

Wednesday, Dec. 6: Deadline for the receipt of motion picture nomination ballots by Ernst & Young at 5:00 p.m. PT

Monday, Dec. 11: Announcement of nominations for the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards AT 5:00 a.m. PT

Friday, Dec. 15: Final ballots sent to all voters

Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024: Deadline for the receipt of final ballots by Ernst & Young at 5:00 p.m. PT

Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024: Presentation of the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards at 5 p.m. PT

It’s hard to believe that just right now, these weeks are the most fertile voting period for HFPA members. In just two weeks, they will cast their ballots. Obviously, things have changed dramatically where the Globes are concerned. At the same time they hand in their ballots, we’ll be hearing from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review.

Right around early December, we’ll have a pretty good idea of what the early part of the Oscar race will look like, though it won’t be solidified until the second part, when the big guilds start announcing. By then, we’ll have what looks like a clear consensus. Even then, things can look different once the Oscar voters cast their ballots.

The Academy has invited thousands of new voters in, people who weren’t necessarily part of the film industry bubble as long as most members have been. They think differently. We call them “New Academy.”

The HFPA has now expanded its roster from 90 members whom we’d more or less analyzed to death over the past 20 years, to 300 — people we have no idea what their tastes are, whether they like celebrities the way the Old Globes did. We don’t know if they will be basing their likes on the “woke” ideology — meaning, identity as a way into a story. We know nothing about them other than that they are, as the HFPA has said: “voters from countries around the world, including Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cameroon and more….The new breakdown is 47% female, and 60% racially and ethnically diverse, with 26.3% Latinx, 13.3% Asian, 11% Black, 9% Middle Eastern.” 

Here is a sampling from their website, which discloses all of the members with a photo, a name and a country of origin. Gone are the days when the Globe members were a big mystery to all of us.

I don’t know how anyone could complain about their membership now. They have answered the call and changed things up. How they’ll all vote, however, remains an open question.

You can view their whole membership here.

The Globes will also have six categories now, not five, which allows them some breathing room to be fully inclusive and avoid a shitstorm. But again, we will all be predicting these nominations as if we know how they will go. But we don’t.

Unlike the Gotham awards, which have a small number of people selecting, the Globes are still a consensus vote, like the Critics Choice, like the Oscars, which means that they’re not going to go wildly off the rails. A consensus is a consensus. We just don’t know what that consensus will look like.

What they’ve gained by evolving per the activists’ demands, the HFPA has lost in “exclusivity.” They can’t really hand-pick contenders to launch their Oscar campaigns as they used to. Now, they’ll be just another voting body. I guess we’re about to see how all of that will work out.

I feel fairly confident in this: They will be aiming for inclusivity in their voting. All of the industry does, but with the Globes, I figure, it will be magnified.

 In an ordinary year, with old Globes, I would have predicted these in Musical/Comedy:

The Color Purple
American Fiction
Barbie
Poor Things
The Holdovers

And then a toss-up between No Hard Feelings (Jennifer Lawrence), May December (Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore) or Air (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon), maybe Wonka (Timothee Chalamet).

But with New Globes, perhaps they might want to be more inclusive and maybe they pick The Buriel with Jamie Foxx.

In Drama, I’d have gone for:

Oppenheimer
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Nyad
Anatomy of a Fall
The Zone of Interest

But the new Globes? I’m thinking they’re not going to be that white (Killers nowithstanding), so maybe it looks likeL

Oppenheimer
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Past Lives
Anatomy of a Fall
Origin

I am just spit-balling here, trying to figure out what you would do if you were barely hanging on, barely able to air your awards show on network television and worried that image-obsessed celebrities might not show up anyway and tank the ratings. How would that change how you voted? Moreover, how are people who have never been a part of the process of the HFPA or the film awards circus going to decide?

International voters see things slightly differently from American voters. Pushing the “woke” thing aside for the moment, I think personally that David Fincher’s The Killer might have a better shot with people outside the bubble of the dog and pony show. It seems to be popular internationally, as do some other movies. Both The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall did well at Cannes, as did The Taste of Things. While these seem like they will find a spot in the “Foreign Language” section,” it’s also likely they’ll show up in Best Picture.

Moving on to acting awards, I think we could see some new names popping up, like Jamie Foxx in The Burial, and perhaps Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor from Origin. Most people are still going to predict these as we always have. That certainly appears to be the case over at Gold Derby.

Here are my current predictions for the top categories there:

Obviously I went rogue with quite a few of these, but only because I do not know how they will vote. Some of them I went with the consensus forming at Gold Derby, only because there aren’t many options in the category.

Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see how they go. I hope the celebrities show up. If they don’t, the Globes will continue to struggle. If they do, well, then we can say they’re back in business. At least for now.