The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the Golden Globe Awards, has passed a comprehensive set of reforms that it hopes with please its many critics.
The backlash against the HFPA was kicked off in February when the Los Angeles Times issued a scathing analysis of its demographics and conduct. Since then, Time’s Up and a coalition of 100 PR firms have helped foment a boycott by talent, studios and networks that said they would not work with the organization until substantive changes were made. NBC said it would not air the Globes in 2022. Several celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson, Ava DuVernay, Mark Ruffalo and Regina King, spoke out strongly against the Globes’ lack of diversity.
On Wednesday night, HFPA’s 84 members passed the new bylaws. “Three months ago, we made a promise to commit to transformational change, and with this vote we kept the last and most significant promise in reimagining the HFPA and our role in the industry,” HFPA board president Ali Sar said in a statement. “All of these promised reforms can serve as industry benchmarks and allow us to once again partner meaningfully with Hollywood moving forward.”
Among the changes: a new board will be elected, comprised of 12 HFPA members and three non-members; there will be at least 20 new members inducted with year, with a focus on recruiting Black members and the “goal of increasing the membership by 50 percent over the next 18 months;” members will no longer need to reside in SoCal; members will be banned from accepting gifts, a form of “bribery” according to critics.
Now, the HFPA will have to decide if it wants to determine nominees and winners, even though the Globes won’t be telecast this year.