5 Ways The 2020 Golden Globes Made History!

The Golden Globes aired this past Sunday, hosted by Ricky Gervais. There were some great moments, like Tom Hanks ruining everybody’s waterproof mascara with his beautiful speech, and Michelle Williams’s amazing, graceful one. The Golden Globes also made history this year, with wins, losses, and speeches. Didn’t watch them? Don’t sweat it! We’re here to tell you just how the Globes changed film this year.

1. Awkwafina’s Best Supporting Actress In a Musical or Comedy Win

Awkwafina made history this year as the first woman of Asian descent to win in a leading actress category, for her role in The Farewell, a film by Lulu Wang that tells the story of a Chinese family returning home to attend a fake wedding so they can secretly say goodbye to their matriarch, who is the only one who does not know she only has a few more weeks to life. Awkwafina’s performance has been heralded as one of the best of the year and a trailblazing moment for Asian-American women in film. 

2. Parasite's Best Foreign Language Film Win

Bong Joon Ho’s incredible film Parasite centers around a poor family that schemes to escape their destitution by outwitting a much wealthier family. After receiving rave reviews and winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the film took home Best Foreign Language Film at the Globes -- the first South Korean film to win a Globe. “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” said Bong in his acceptance speech. Parasite is eligible for Best Picture at the Oscars and would be the first South Korean film to take home the title. 

3. Hildur Guðnadóttir's Joker Original Score Win

Another encouraging moment wasHildur Guðnadóttir taking home the Globe for Best Original Score, the first solo woman in 19 years to receive the honor, and the first woman ever to win it on a solo team. She was the only female nominee in the category, beating Alexandre Desplat for Little Women, Thomas Newman for 1917, and Daniel Pemberton for Motheless Brooklyn.

4. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women Loss

Next is not a win, but a loss. Greta Gerwig’s film Little Women, an adaptation of the iconinc Louisa May Alcott novel, was expected to be at least nominated for Best Drama. However, it didn’t even reach this stage, raising criticisms about diversity at the HFPA. Such a clear choice being left out of the nominations was a moment for women in film -- Gerwig even discussed the moment on "Jimmy Kimmel", talking about how HFPA voters said “we voted for you” when that couldn’t have been true, as she lost. As the Oscars approach, we’ll see how this moment plays out on a bigger stage, and if Gerwig will take home a Best Picture nomination or win for her film.

5. Kate McKinnon and Ellen

Ellen DeGeneres received the Carol Burnett Award for her contributions to television, with a speech given by Kate McKinnon of “Saturday Night Live”. McKinnon’s speech about DeGeneres being a LGBTQ role model was heartfelt, tender, and sincere. Although DeGeneres has received some negative attention in the past few months, her contributions to the industry are objectively enormous. McKinnon’s speech and DeGeneres’s win are both iconic in themselves, and representative of a changing, improving industry.