Golden Globes

The Golden Globes are awards presented for excellence in international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists, professionals, and their work. The ceremony is normally held every January, and has been a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year in the Academy Awards. The eligibility period for Golden Globes extends from January 1 through December 31. The Golden Globes were not televised in 1969–1972, 1979, and 2022. The 2008 ceremony was canceled due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, while the 2022 ceremony was downsized to a non-televised gala due to a lack of broadcasters.

The ceremony was originally established and organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group representing international journalists covering the United States' entertainment industry. In 2022, amid criticism and boycotts of the HFPA over aspects of its operations (including a lack of diversity in its membership), interim CEO Todd Boehly announced that the Golden Globe Awards would be reformed as a for-profit entity under his investment firm Eldridge Industries (the parent company of Dick Clark Productions, which had produced the Golden Globes since 1993), and that a new non-profit entity would be formed to continue the HFPA's philanthropic activities. The restructuring took effect on June 12, 2023, with the Golden Globes being acquired by Dick Clark Productions, and the HFPA's philanthropic activities transitioned to the Golden Globe Foundation.

History

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) was founded in 1943 as the Hollywood Foreign Correspondent Association (HFCA) by Los Angeles–based foreign journalists seeking to develop a better-organized process of gathering and distributing cinema news to non-U.S. markets. One of the organization's first major endeavors was to establish a ceremony similar to the Academy Awards to honor film achievements. The 1st Golden Globe Awards ceremony, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, was held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at various venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Foreign Press Association of Hollywood's Henrietta Awards

In 1950, some of the journalists in the HFCA broke away to form the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood (FPAH). It was the FPAH that instituted the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite, which was subsequently given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the new name for the organization when the FPAH and HFCA merged in 1955, minus the "Henrietta" name through 1980 (for the 1979 movie year).

The FPAH held its first World Film Favorite Festival on January 27, 1951, giving out Henrietta Awards in various categories. The award, an angel above a globe raised on four tall pillars, was named for the president of the FPAH, Henry Gris. Winners of the Henrietta for World Film Favorite were Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman. At the FPAH's second World Film Favorite Festival held January 26, 1952, the Henrietta was a large statuette of a naked woman holding a flower. Based on an international poll of 900 newspapers, magazines and radio stations, Alan Ladd and Esther Williams were presented the gold Henrietta for World Favorites. while silver Henriettas for "Best Young Box Office Personality" were presented to Leslie Caron, Tony Curtis, John Derek, Mitzi Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe and Patrice Wymore. At the third festival held on February 14, 1953, John Wayne and Susan Hayward won the gold Henriettas.

The HFCA continued to hold their Golden Globe Awards. In 1950, the HFCA had established a special honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as an international figure within the entertainment industry, the first award was presented to director and producer Cecil B. DeMille. The official name of the award thus became the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

In January 1954, the two organizations held a joint ceremony, and the following year, they merged under the new Hollywood Foreign Press Association name. The Henrietta Award was terminated, but the HFPA instituted a special award called World Film Favorite, a Golden Globe surmounted by an angel. Similar to the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite, the winner of the new HFPA Golden Globe was determined by a worldwide poll conducted by Reuters. This award, sometimes referred to as The Henrietta Award, was given out through 1980 for the 1979, movie year, when it was terminated.

Post-merger

The 13th Golden Globe Awards held in February 1956 saw the first Golden Globe in Television Achievement. The first three permanent television award categories, Best TV Series, Best TV Actor, and Best TV Actress, then made their debuts during the 19th Golden Globe Awards held in March 1962.

Beginning in 1963, the trophies commenced to be handed out by one or more persons referred to as "Miss Golden Globe", a title renamed on January 5, 2018, to "Golden Globe Ambassador". The holders of the position were, traditionally, the daughters or sometimes the sons of a celebrity, and as a point of pride, these often continued to be contested among celebrity parents.

In 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned (but not for the first time in its history). The New York firm Society Awards collaborated for a year with the HFPA to produce a statuette that included a unique marble and enhanced the statuette's quality and gold content. It was unveiled at a press conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show.

The Carol Burnett Award was created as a television counterpart to the Cecil B. DeMille Award, named after its first recipient in 2019, actress and comedian Carol Burnett.

Revenues from award broadcast

Revenues generated from the annual ceremony have enabled the HFPA to donate millions of dollars to entertainment-related charities, as well as funding scholarships and other programs for future film and television professionals. The most prominent beneficiary is the Young Artist Awards, presented annually by the Young Artist Foundation, established in 1978 by Hollywood Foreign Press member Maureen Dragone, to recognize and award excellence of young Hollywood performers under the age of 21 and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically or financially challenged.

2022 boycott, acquisition by Dick Clark Productions

In 2021, the HFPA faced criticism for the lack of Black representation among its members. On May 3, 2021, the HFPA announced plans for a reform package, including a 50% increase in members over the next 18 months, as well as new positions, term limits, and practices to improve its accountability. However, Time's Up and a group of 100 PR firms criticized the lack of given timelines for filling some of the new management positions, arguing that they would not be completed soon enough to have any material impact on the cycle of the upcoming 79th Golden Globe Awards in January 2022. Time's Up further argued that the package "largely contains no specifics" nor "commitments to real accountability or change".

On May 7, 2021, both Amazon Studios and Netflix announced that they would stop their activities with the HFPA until sufficient actions on reforms are made. Other media companies followed suit on May 10, including NBC, who announced that it would not televise the 79th Golden Globe Awards, but that it would be open to televising the ceremony in 2023 if the HFPA were successful in its efforts to reform. WarnerMedia also boycotted the HFPA, while Tom Cruise returned the awards he had won for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia in solidarity.

Following these events, the HFPA released a timeline for its reforms, which would see the process completed by the week of August 2. On October 1, the HFPA released a list of 21 new members that it had recruited under these reforms, and named Todd Boehly (owner of ceremony producer Dick Clark Productions) as its "interim CEO". The HFPA then announced on October 15 that it still planned to hold the 79th Golden Globe Awards on January 9, 2022, with or without another media partner. With the televised absence of the Golden Globe Awards from NBC, the Critics Choice Association attempted to shift their Critics' Choice Movie Awards ceremony up a week to fill the void and increase their overall prestige, though it was later delayed due to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The 79th ceremony was conducted as a non-televised, private presentation, with limited guests (particularly beneficiaries of the HFPA's philanthropic activities) and strict COVID-19 protocol due to Omicron variant.