Golden Globes voters vow to ‘bring in Black members’ after HFPA investigation

As the Golden Globes ceremony draws close, the buzz around the annual show should be at a peak with celebrities fitting themselves for their outfits, practising their red carpet sound bites. But, the Coronavirus pandemic has forced the 78th Golden Globe Awards to be held virtually. The Los Angeles Times’ investigation has recently raised questions about the 87-member Hollywood Foreign Press Association. For the unversed, the HFPA is the organisation that’s in charge of arranging the Golden Globes award ceremony every year. There are 87 members who get to vote for the awards and the association’s name recently got embroiled in a controversy because none of the members were Black journalists. This year’s ceremony is receiving backlash for not including any of this year’s Black-led Oscar contenders, such as Da 5 Bloods, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and One Night in Miami, in nominations for the group’s best picture award, despite being Oscar frontrunners. In an official statement, HRPA has declared that they are committed to ensure their membership is reflective of the communities all around the world. The statement further reads, “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.” As per reports, the association had rejected a Black applicant named Samantha Ofole-Prince in 2013. Post which, then-HFPA President Theo Kingma talked about the lack of Black members in an interview and said, there is nobody (Black) because they can’t afford to come and live here.