With the 78th Golden Globe Awards occurring at the end of February, nominations for the award show are still talked about on various forms of social media. While the nominations are being praised for its diversity–such as honoring late African-America actor Chadwick Boseman with a Best Actor in a Motion Picture nomination in his posthumous Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottoms and Chinese director Chloé Zhao earning a Best Director for a Motion Picture nomination for her movie Nomadland, there were a couple unusual downfalls that were the center of conversation.
Most notably was how the film Minari, directed by Lee Isaac Chung, didn’t get a nomination for Best Picture because it was classified as a foreign-language film since its dialogue was more than 50 percent Korean. This comes as an ironic surprise, since the film was directed by a Korean-American director, distributed by an American company (A24), filmed in America, and tells the experience of a Korean family who immigrate to America to achieve the American Dream. The whole film is basically centered around America, but it was deemed as a foreign film just because of its dialogue. Even though, in many American households, nearly 20 percent of the people in them speak a language other than English.
But the surprises don’t stop there. Netflix’s Emily in Paris also received a nomination for Best Television Series (Musical/Comedy). This came as a shocking surprise to many considering Emily in Paris’s low reviews, especially by viewers from Paris who disliked the show because of the stereotypical cliches about Paris it seemed to enforce. The general public was also surprised that while Emily in Paris managed to get a nomination, the British show I May Destroy You (directed, written, and produced by Michaela Coel) didn’t. I May Destroy You was highly praised for months after its release, predominantly because of its racially diverse cast and its fearless take on (TW) recovering from sexual assault.
In fact, shortly after the nominations, a writer from Emily in Paris agreed that I May Destroy You definitely deserved a nomination because it was “a brilliant work of art.” It really makes me wonder how a gem like I May Destroy You was praised highly by many but still remained unnoticed by the Golden Globes.
From these snubs, it’s obvious that there seems to be some bias involved in the nomination process. While we will never truly learn the truth behind these decisions, what we can do is continue to support works of art like Minari and I May Destroy You to give them the recognition that they deserve.