I May Destroy You Was Snubbed By The Golden Globes, So How The Hell Are Nominations Decided Then?

If you watched the announcement of Golden Globes nominations last night, you will’ve undoubtedly felt the rage so many of us did seeing Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) - the body that decides Golden Globes nominations and winners.

Immediately trending on Twitter, everyone was asking why and how a show that made such monumental waves upon its release in June last year. It tackled the trauma of sexual assault with an intricacy few writers could only dream of and spoke to the sheer genius of Coel like nothing else we watched all year.

It felt like an absolute certainty it would clean up in awards season, so it feels like a blatant snub when Coel and her show received no recognition at all, while shows like Emily In Paris and actors like James Corden were honoured instead. And that’s no shade to Emily in Paris, Deborah Copaken, a writer on the Netflix comedy and semi-inspiration for Emily, has said herself that their show being nominated while I May Destroy You was snubbed is ‘what is wrong with everything’.

What’s the issue then? Is it that I May Destroy You is so intensely British that it couldn’t possibly ‘speak to’ an American critique? Or, is it that the HFPA is primarily made up of old, white men embedded with so much misogynoir they wouldn’t recognise such an incredible piece of art about sexual assault created by a Black woman even if the world is screaming at them to?

Let’s investigate. According to Vox, the HFPA is a relatively secretive body – there are 90 members – all journalists - but a roster of who they are is not published online. All that is required to be a member – they admit a maximum of five new members every year – is that the journalist must be based in Southern California, but work for a non-US media outlet. ‘Their main journalistic beat must be Hollywood,’ according to Vox. ‘[So,] the Golden Globes are given out by people who cover Hollywood, not people who work in the film and TV industries.’

How are Golden Globe Awards nominations decided?

Well, HFPA members go to screenings throughout the year, sometimes specifically for HFPA members, sometimes just at a film festival or press screening - according to the Golden Globe website, members usually see more than 300 films overall. They also interview over 400 actors, directors, writers and producers – often reporting from film sets in their daily jobs anyway.

'You’re given the opportunity in a master thesis class to talk to people behind the scenes about how things are constructed,' Scott Orlin, who is in his second year as chairman of the HFPA’s board of directors, told Variety last year. 'It’s like being a painter watching Picasso paint and asking, "Why did you use blue?". To watch "Dead Man Walking" and then talk to Tim Robbins about why he made the choices he made; to go on set and witness the complexities of filmmaking; to talk to costume designers and art directors, those things are invaluable.'

When it comes to nominating a film or TV show, each member receives a ballot with a list of eligible films and TV shows submitted by studios (they must have opened in the U.S. during the calendar year to be eligible). They receive dozens of DVD screeners of eligible films, but have most likely already seen them. Members select five nominees for each category, rank their choices from 1 to 5 and then The Ernst & Young accounting firm tallies the ballots. Members won’t know who’s actually nominated until the official announcement when the rest of us find out too.

It seems then, since they largely operate as critics, the board of members likely nominates films that resonated with them most – as oppose to noting down public response, although that could play a part for some – as film critics often base reviews on personal opinion.

Without publishing any diversity figures, it’s impossible to know whether that means film and TV creators are reliant on their work resonating with a majority of older, white men. (Which, I May Destroy You aside, is depressing enough in itself.) But the lack of diversity in nominations would certainly suggest that.

After a year that has seen the pandemic worsen racial and gender inequalities, a summer of protests for Black Lives Matter and concerted efforts on the parts of other major film-critic boards to bolster diversity within voters (The Television Academy and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to name a couple), the HFPA’s nominations suggest they haven’t really followed suit.

Yes, they made up for completely ignoring women in last year’s Director category by nominating a record-breaking three women (Emerald Fennell, Chloé Zhao, Regina King) but largely, diversity was at a minimum. In the Best Picture -Drama and Best Picture – Comedy/Musical categories, for example, not one Black filmmaker was nominated despite the extremely prestigious AFI Top 10 movies list including at least four (Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, One Night In Miami and Judas and the Black Messiah, if you’re interested).

According to Deadline, the lack of diversity in nominations absolutely sets back the representation goals many have been campaigning for. It goes to show then that this snub says absolutely nothing about the quality of Michalea Coel’s work, but more the sheer lack of quality critics among the HFPA members. That being said, awards mean a lot to creators – they bolster viewing figures, secure funding for future projects and inspire confidence and opportunity for film and TV makers. It might be a THEM problem, but it’s up to us to demand change so loudly that incredible screenwriters like Michaela Coel don’t bear the burden of their mistakes.

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