One day before the nominations were scheduled to be announced, I got an email from HFPA with a Zoom link to attend the event live as an international voter of the 80th Golden Globe Awards. The time stamp for the event read 4:30am PT, December 12. Was I reading it right? It's nice of them to start early so we, the global Easterners, could join without losing sleep, but this was straight up “Fazr waqt” at the venue.
As if to show even deeper respect for us and our culture (making up for the controversy over not having any black voters last year), they started on Bangla time; 40 mins later than the time mentioned in the email in question. At 5:10am PT, President of HFPA Helen Hoehne went up on stage and the nominations were read out within the span of 25 minutes.
With the addition of 103 new voters from 62 countries, the 200 total voters consist of 52% female, 51.5% racially and ethnically diverse (the rest, still the biggest chunk of the pie, is White) with 19.5% Latin, 12% Asian, 10% Black and 10% Middle Eastern. Not entirely sure how much of the Middle Eastern segment is outside of Asia, but I guess it is safe to say a large portion of the diverse voters were from Asia.
Whether that upped the chances of Asian films to receive nominations or not, films from Asia or about Asians dominated the pool of foreign films that received nominations for the 80th Golden Globe Awards. These awards mostly recognize films/TV shows that were released in the US and only a handful of foreign films (roughly 20 out of 115 films this time) qualify in any category other than the “Best Foreign Film” kind.
Bangladesh's “Hawa,” India's “RRR,” Pakistan's “Joyland”- were among those 20 foreign films that was considered for almost every category (best film, director, actor, actress, score, screenplay, song etc). My heart swelled to see the names of Chanchal Chowdhury, Nazifa Tushi, Mejbaur Rahman Sumon and Sharif Shoaib in the ballots besides some of the greatest film professionals of all time, but soon sank to see that unlike the others, “Hawa” didn't send screeners or any other material “for our consideration”. In a swarm of around 450 feature films, one certainly can't vote for a film they haven't seen or heard of, no matter how many times Dhaka Tribune features it.
On a separate note, Nuhash Humayun's “Moshari” is on the other end of the campaigning spectrum. Adding Oscar winning Executive Producers (Jordan Peele and Riz Ahmed) during awards season, getting featured by influential magazines in their lists of short films most likely to win an Oscar nod in January- scream of vigorous intent to bag the nomination for which he truly is a strong contender, alongside “All Too Well” director Taylor Swift, who this week announced she'll be directing a feature, reminding voters that the singer takes her directing gigs very seriously.
While we're on the subject of campaigning, James Cameron's “Avatar: The Way of Water” for some reason missed the “screen by” deadline for the international voters, but arranged a virtual press conference with the director and cast (including the divine Kate Winslet). The film managed to score two nominations, however last minute it may be. Angela Bassett also held such a zoom call for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” this week, refreshing the voters' memories about her strong performance in an otherwise unremarkable film. She too bagged a nomination.
Coming back to the Asians, Telugu film “RRR” went on to receive two nominations (Best Foreign Film, Best Song), the highest number for a foreign language film. Among other Asian films nominated were South Korea's “Decision to Leave” (Best Foreign Film), and Japan's “Inu-Oh” (Best Animated Feature). Films about Asian immigrants “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won a staggering 6 nominations (Best Film, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay), and “Turning Red” won a nomination for Best Animated Feature.
In the most contested nomination among the acting categories, seasoned Filipino actress Dolly De Leon scored one for her role in Palme d'Or winning comedy "Triangle of Sadness." Malaysian superstar Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan from "Everything Everywhere All at Once" also bagged one acting nomination each.
After thousands of hours of watching films and listening to scores, our work is still far from done. All 200 voters need to cast their ballots one last time, some for films, some for TV shows. The winners will be announced on January 10, 2023 at Hollywood's party of the year, the Golden Globes. Here's the full list of nominees in the film categories:
Best film – musical or comedy
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Triangle of Sadness
Best film – drama
Avatar: The Way of Water
Elvis
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Best animated film
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Inu-Oh
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Turning Red
Best original score
Alexandre Desplat, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Hildur Guðnadóttir, Women Talking
Justin Hurwitz, Babylon
John Williams, The Fabelmans
Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best screenplay
Todd Field, Tár
Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Best non-English language film
RRR (India)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium)
Decision to Leave (South Korea)
Best actor – musical or comedy
Diego Calva, Babylon
Daniel Craig, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Adam Driver, White Noise
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ralph Fiennes, The Menu
Best director
James Cameron, Avatar: The Way of Water
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Baz Luhrmann, Elvis
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Best supporting actress
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dolly De Leon, Triangle of Sadness
Carey Mulligan, She Said
Best original song
Carolina, Taylor Swift (Where the Crawdads Sing)
Ciao Papa, Guillermo del Toro & Roeban Katz (Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio)
Hold My Hand, Lady Gaga and Bloodpop (Top Gun: Maverick)
Lift Me Up, Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Naatu Naatu, Kala Bhairava, M. M. Keeravani, Rahul Sipligunj (RRR)
Best supporting actor
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brad Pitt, Babylon
Eddie Redmayne, The Good Nurse
Best actress in a drama
Cate Blanchett, Tár
Olivia Colman, Empire of Light
Viola Davis, The Woman King
Ana de Armas, Blonde
Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
Best actress in a musical or comedy
Margot Robbie, Babylon
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu
Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Lesley Manville, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best actor in a drama
Austin Butler, Elvis
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Hugh Jackman, The Son
Bill Nighy, Living
Jeremy Pope, The Inspection
