Golden Globes Adds Two New Awards

The Golden Globes, known historically for being one of the leading ceremonies of awards season, has announced two new awards for their upcoming January 2024 show.

The first of the new awards is the Golden Globe for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. The Golden Globes website states that this award nominates those films that are the ‘highest-earning and/or most viewed films that have garnered extensive global audience support and attained cinematic excellence.’

In order to be eligible, films must have grossed a minimum of $150million in their theatrical run. $100million of that total must have come from the domestic (United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico) box office. Streaming films will be considered based on viewership data acquired by recognised industry sources. Eight films can be nominated, and their inclusion in this category will not rule out their eligibility in other categories such as Best Motion Picture and Best Animated Film.

Tim Gray, Golden Globes Executive Vice President, expressed his desire to rectify attitudes towards awards season, stating that “these films have typically not been recognized among industry awards, but they should be.”

This decision is reminiscent of the proposed Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film put forward by the Academy Awards in 2018. This announcement was met with criticism due to a lack of clarity regarding what it was actually awarding and for potentially diminishing a blockbuster’s chance at a Best Picture nomination. A month after its announcement, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences retracted their decision and nothing has been heard of the award since. It will be interesting to see how the Golden Globes version of this award is handled and if the organisation will commit to it in future ceremonies.

The second of the new Golden Globe awards is the Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. This award will celebrate achievements in traditional stand-up comedy from broadcast, cable, and streaming – so long as the project has a recognised distributor. A total of six nominees will be chosen in this category.

These announcements come following criticism of the Golden Globes over the past few years, directed at their former parent company The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In 2021, most of the criticism addressed a lack of diversity in the voting body, which hadn’t seen a black person join since 2002. This resulted in the 79th Golden Globe Awards being widely boycotted, with US broadcaster NBC refusing to broadcast it. The decision to promote more populist films through the new award could be the organisation’s attempt at repairing their relationship and reputation with filmgoing audiences.

The most recent ceremony saw Martin McDonough’s The Banshees of Inisherin be rewarded as the biggest winner of the night, picking up three awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Steven Spielberg‘s semi-autobiographical love letter to film, The Fabelmans, was awarded Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Spielberg himself earning the award for Best Director.

The 81st Golden Globe Awards will take place on Sunday, 7th January 2024.