Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards

The organizers of the “Golden Globes” film awards decided to continue holding their distribution ceremony next Sunday, even without an audience or live television broadcasts, amid intense controversy and boycotts from the entertainment sector.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which is the awards jury, has faced accusations of racism and discrimination in recent months.

The Golden Globe Awards usually mark the start of the Hollywood film awards season, and its distribution ceremony attracts the elite of Hollywood stars, but it is expected that faces will be absent this year from the evening that NBC channels announced their intention to stop broadcasting.

But all this did not prevent the organizers from proceeding as if nothing had happened in the distribution of awards, Sunday, at its usual place, the “Beverly Hilton” hotel in Beverly Hills, to highlight the “charities” of the association.

Over the past 25 years, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has donated more than $50 million to a number of charities, organizers said in a statement.

In its statement, the association added that the 79th award ceremony is being held without an audience due to the health situation and the rapid spread of the “Omicron” mutant. The films “Belfast” by Kenneth Branagh and “Power of the Dog” by Jane Campion topped the list of nominations announced on December 13.

But the future of the Golden Globes is on the line. In March, more than 100 writers sent a letter to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, demanding an end to “discriminatory and unprofessional behaviour, breach of ethics and accusations of corruption”.

In the face of this uproar, the League quickly adopted a series of reforms, including the inclusion of new members in it to improve the representation of minorities in it.

The two stars Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson publicly considered it insufficient, while Tom Cruise returned to the League the three Golden Globes he won in protest.

A group of major studios such as “Warner Brothers”, “Netflix” and “Amazon”, announced that they will not cooperate with the association unless they implement “major” changes.