For the most part, the 83rd annual Golden Globes lived up to its reputation as “Hollywood’s Party of the Year.” Such A-listers as George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Timothée Chalamet filled the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the annual event that, in the show’s words, celebrates excellence in film, television and podcasting.
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But a good party host makes sure that everyone invited has a good time. The Globes’ decision to not air the presentation of the award for best original score came across as a sign of disrespect for film music. The Globes had a packed show and needed to trim a few minutes to bring the show in on time. They solved their time problem at the expense of the film scoring community.
The best original score category has a long and venerable history at the Globes. It was first presented in 1948 to legendary composer Max Steiner for Life With Father. The top winners in the history of the category, with four wins each, are Maurice Jarre, Dimitri Tiomkin and John Williams – film scoring legends all.
For the record, this year’s winner, Ludwig Göransson for Sinners, was able to give an acceptance speech at the Beverly Hilton. But the TV audience saw none of it. Coming back from a commercial, Göransson was simply announced as the winner in a brief and perfunctory manner.
Göransson also won in this category two years ago for Oppenheimer. He’s the first composer to win twice inside of three years at the Globes since Justin Hurwitz won in 2017 for La La Land and again in 2019 for First Man. That fun (and impressive) factoid could have been mentioned on the show, but wasn’t.
The producers didn’t intend to disrespect film scoring. The decision was made due to “broadcast time constraints.”
A spokesperson for the Golden Globes said in a statement: “We place tremendous value on this craft and the artists who practice it; their work is essential to the creative excellence we honor at the Golden Globes. We greatly appreciate the composers whose work elevates every project we honor and are grateful for the creativity, skill, and impact this community brings to our industry.”
The show sought to ensure that the winner would have the same “in-room experience” as all other winners, being announced live in the room and given the opportunity to deliver an acceptance speech. A clip of Göransson’s acceptance speech was distributed across all of the Golden Globes’ owned platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X and Threads) and appears on the Golden Globes website.
In his speech, Göransson thanked the film’s writer/director, Ryan Coogler; his partner and the film’s executive music producer Serena Göransson; lyricist Raphael Saadiq, with whom he cowrote the film’s Globe-nominated (and Oscar-shortlisted) song “I Lied to You”; and cast members Miles Caton, Wunmi Mosaku and Michael B. Jordan, among others.
The other nominees in the category, who weren’t mentioned on the telecast at all, were Alexandre Desplat for Frankenstein, Jonny Greenwood for One Battle After Another, Kanding Ray for Sirāt, Max Richter for Hamnet and Hans Zimmer for F1.
On the red carpet, Zimmer (a three-time winner in the category) blasted the show’s decision not to televise the category.
“I think it’s a shame not to honor those people — my friends — who work so hard to become a voice,” Zimmer told Variety’s Angelique Jackson. “As a person who has been making films forever, everybody who works on a film works their utmost, doesn’t get any sleep, there are no weekends. … I think the work should always be acknowledged… This year is a fantastic year for composers — don’t ignore them, you don’t have a movie without them.”
The show’s timing problems are real. The show has added three new categories in recent years. Two years ago, it added best performance in stand-up comedy on television and cinematic and box office achievement. This year, it added best podcast.
As it happens, Ricky Gervais, this year’s winner of the stand-up comedy award, was a no-show, so that presentation didn’t have much of a pay-off. The award for cinematic and box office achievement went to Sinners, so Göransson was able to take the stage on the telecast (as a key member of the creative team of Ryan Coogler’s film), though only music nerds would have been able to ID him.
The award for best original song was presented on air, and the show was brimming with excerpts from old and new pop hits, played at loud volume, to accompany each winner’s march to the stage. So, music was a big part of the event. But the show should have found a few minutes to present the award for best original score with the respect it deserved – even if that would have meant cutting some host shtick or presenter patter.
Göransson was also the winner in the best original score category at the Critics Choice Awards on Jan. 4 – and the category wasn’t televised on-air at that show either. So this is not simply a Golden Globes issue. But at the Critics Choice Awards, best original score was one of about 18 categories not presented on the telecast. At the Globes, it was the only category treated this way, so it felt like more of a snub.
Both shows need to remember that music is vital to the success of a film and shouldn’t be the first cut you make when you need to save a few minutes.
The Golden Globes are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
