In this op-ed, writer Sara Li unpacks Golden Globes 2020 and how the ceremony ignored some of the many culturally-relevant movies and shows made by women this year.
Another year, another award season that falls upon us in a flurry of designer wear, meme-able faux pas, and glitzy after parties. Golden Globes 2020 was no exception to the typical Hollywood schmoozing and snubbing, and as is tradition with award seasons past, this year’s Golden Globes rung in another year in which women were undermentioned, undervalued, or simply forgotten altogether. In case you missed it: no women were nominated in the Best Director category, and stories made by women (many of which centered women’s perspectives) were hardly featured at all.
The lack of inclusion at the Golden Globes, however much fun they are, isn’t entirely surprising, or even new. In the entire history of the Golden Globes, there have only been four female Best Director nominees, with one winner in 1983. The situation has gotten so embarrassingly loud that even Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais addressed it on Sunday night. “No female directors were nominated this year. No one. I mean, that's bad. I've had a word with the Hollywood Foreign Press, and they've guaranteed that will never happen again,” Gervais deadpanned. The punchline: “Because working with all the major studios, they’ve agreed to go back the way things were a few years ago, when they didn’t even hire women directors, and that will solve the problem. You’re welcome.”
Some of the year’s most interesting films and shows made by or about women didn’t receive their Golden Globes due: Unbelievable (starring Kaitlyn Dever), Little Women (directed by Greta Gerwig), Booksmart(directed by Olivia Wilde), and When They See Us (directed by Ava Duvernay), to name a few. The ones that did, like The Farewell and its star Awkwafina, felt massively important but still few and far between. These were important, timely stories created by women. And like much of Hollywood’s overall treatment of women, they were ignored.