Just two days before the Golden Globes, a new coalition of voices organized by the Time’s Up campaign has risen up criticizing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and calling for reform of its memberships rules and goals. Per The L.A. Times, a collection of prominent actors and directors—including Ava DuVernay, J.J. Abrams, Sterling K. Brown, Amy Schumer, Jurnee Smollett, Shonda Rhimes, and more—began a dedicated pushback against the HFPA on social media this weekend, highlighting multiple issues with the way the Globes are run, including the fact that, of the 87 people voting on this year’s awards, not a single one is Black.
There’s nothing new about critiquing the Globes, of course; the event was one of the first to catch Time’s Up attention back in 2018, most notably with the decision by the majority of female attendees/signatories to dress in black for that year’s events as a show of solidarity and protest. And 2020's crop of nominees has been especially frustrating for observers, given the absence of any number of Black-led projects—Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Da 5 Bloods, Judas And The Black Messiah, One Night In Miami, and more—from the list of nominees for Best Picture. No one involved in the protest is talking any kind of boycott at the moment—Brown, who was the first Black man to ever win Best Actor In A Television Drama at the Globes, is even set to present. But there is a general effort afoot here to let the HFPA know that the current status quo is no longer acceptable, and a continued call for more diverse voices helping to guide whose work, and whose images, are held up as laudable on Hollywood’s behalf.
For what it’s worth, the HFPA has responded with at least some positivity to the critiques, issuing a statement yesterday addressing Time’s Up’s criticisms:
We are fully committed to ensuring our membership is reflective of the communities around the world who love film, tv and the artists inspiring and educating them. We understand that we need to bring in Black members, as well as members from other underrepresented backgrounds, and we will immediately work to implement an action plan to achieve these goals as soon as possible.