The State of the Race: Tracking That Awards Narrative with the Globe Noms

Awards voters are required to walk a very risky tightrope now, with Twitter as the ultimate arbiter of who is shamed or praised in a given day. How did we get here? Human nature, for starters. The problem is that when all you have is a hammer (an algorithm that rewards outrage more than anything else) everything looks like a nail. Last year around this time there was outrage at the Globes for supposedly “snubbing” women. Boy was there outrage. So much outrage. I remember defending the Globes then by saying they were, to date, still the only voting body that nominated Ava DuVernay in Best Director, Barbra Streisand and Kathryn Bigelow twice, etc.

So it is remarkable that in the Best Director category at the Globes this year are three women to two men. Those two men? The Social Network’s amazing duo of David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin (“I did not know that, tell me more”). They get the thankless job of representing white guy cinema in a year that will likely lead with a narrative about inclusion. Either way, there they are – with their Netflix movies, side by side for all eternity, not to mention Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross back in Score as double nominees for Mank and Soul. I’m kind of digging that, as a Social Network fangirl.

But of course, Twitter is throwing a fit because that is what Twitter does. Do we see any headlines that say “the Globes break a record for most female nominees in the Best Director category EVER.” Sure, they are bested by the indie squad of the Gothams and whatnot but in the industry this just doesn’t happen. We can reasonably assume that the Hollywood Foreign Press were trying to pay heed to the requirements of the day while also picking the films they genuinely liked the best. No easy task.

The Golden Globes have just topped the Oscars and the DGA for most women and women of color in the Best Director category. Neither the DGA nor the Oscars have never even HAD even TWO women nominees for Best Director. Probably that breaks a PGA and SAG ensemble stat too but I have to look. Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell have nominations in Picture, Director, Screenplay and Acting. That is significant.

If a narrative falls in the forest and there is no one around to see it or hear it does it fall at all? A narrative would, say, push Chloé Zhao all the way through to the finish line as the first woman of color to win Best Picture and Best Director. A narrative would leap on the historic number of women in the top categories at the Globes. But Twitter is hungry and Twitter must feed. So the narrative is, instead, that the Globes left off films with all black casts like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods – two Netflix movies that most awards pundits had put at the forefront.

With SAG coming tomorrow and the Producers Guild a ways away there is a good chance at least one of those films omitted today will get in, not to mention Judas and the Black Messiah, which might do very well. Da 5 Bloods might rise but I always found it a bit of a problematic sell. The reason being, you have to top your last great movie and Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman leaves a long shadow. Either which way, to throw a fit about the Globes today of all days is the wrong take. I’m just gonna say it.

Here is Steve Pond, for instance, punishing the only two white guys in Best Director with his lede, saying the Globes aren’t inclusive enough. Did you think this was going to be a relief year or a punishing year? If you guessed the former, you’d be wrong. If you guessed the latter, yep you are right because Globes voters MUST ADHERE to the rules that include everyone and everything all of the time or else there is something very wrong. Ma Rainey and Da 5 Bloods are both from Netflix, as is Chicago 7 and Mank. Both are male directors.  Regina King gets in as the only black female other than Ava DuVernay to ever get in for Best Director. That’s significant and it tells you that Miami was likely vying for the Best Picture category.

Despite the clickbait headline, Pond’s piece is fair-minded. He points out that they did make bold choices after all (they did) but you can’t expect all of the awards voters to always be voting to please Twitter. It just can’t work that way and function as an organization. They have to pick what they like best, otherwise what is the ever-loving point?

The only people still left to be criticize in Hollywood, politics and everywhere else are white men. There are only two of them in Best Director. If you step back and look at the nominees overall you will see quite a diverse bunch of names in all of the categories, including Animated Feature.

To me, after last year’s freak-out over no women in the Best Director category they solved that one problem this year. Sadly, no one seems to give a shit.