The traditional engine of the Golden Globes, a colossal red carpet, will not exist this time around. The ceremony, which recognises excellence in film and television, is being held virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The honourees will all be at home and Hollywod stars will get draped in diamonds and couture gowns, accepting trophies from mansions and luxury hotel rooms for the 78th Golden Globe awards. Here's everything you need to know ahead of Sunday night's event.
Who is hosting the event?
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, will host the night's events and for the fourth time. The former Saturday Night Live stars have been favourites to host the Globes since their times anchoring the ceremony between 2013-2015.
Rather than the Globes' usual Beverly Hills gala, this year's event will be a hybrid affair, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will be hosting from opposite coasts: Fey will appear live from the Rainbow Room in New York; Poehler from the Beverly Hilton, the awards' usual West Coast home. Nominees will be in locations all over the world.
Throughout the ceremony, there will be guest award presenters including Renee Zellweger, Cynthia Erivo, Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern, Salma Hayek and Jamie Lee Curtis. But the nominees will mostly dial in.
What time do the festivities start?
The ceremony begins at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific times [5.00am on Monday in UAE].
If you're committed to watching all possible coverage, you'll want to park yourself on your couch by 4 p.m. Eastern time, 1 p.m. Pacific - that's when E! begins its preshow coverage. The official Golden Globe Awards preshow begins streaming live from the official @GoldenGlobes Twitter account and on the website at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, 3:30 Pacific. And the network broadcasting the ceremony, NBC, also has a preshow; with Jane Lynch and Susan Kelechi Watson as hosts, it starts at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific.
Where can you watch the ceremony?
On television, NBC is the official broadcaster. Online, if you have a cable login, you can watch via NBC.com/live. Depending on where you live, there's also Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV Now, YouTube TV or FuboTV, which all require subscriptions, though many are offering free trials.
What should you watch for?
Netflix once again dominated the nominations this year, garnering a whopping 42. Its films include David Fincher's Old Hollywood biopic, "Mank," which picked up six nominations, and Aaron Sorkin's latest courtroom drama, "The Trial of the Chicago 7," which got five. Hulu's "Nomadland," which stars Frances McDormand, picked up four, and the film's director, ChloE Zhao, could become the first woman of Asian descent to be honored in a director category.
Chadwick Boseman is also a favorite to be honored posthumously for best actor for his final film role as a trumpeter in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Jane Fonda will be given the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, and Norman Lear will get the Carol Burnett Award for contributions to television.
Why has the event attracted controversy this year?
Certainly not helping matters, the 78th Golden Globes arrive amid a renewed sense that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the scandal-prone group that bestows the awards, needs a dramatic overhaul. The 80-some voting members have long been painted as out of touch and faintly corrupt, including by their own hosts; Ricky Gervais referred to them as "vegetables" during last year's live broadcast. But recent news reports have revealed brutal infighting and a questionable fixation on compensation.
The group has no Black members, The Los Angeles Times discovered.
But the awards machinery must grind on: Too much money is at stake. NBC pays $60 million a year for broadcast rights. Studios and streaming services will spend millions of dollars to publicize Globe wins, in part because balloting for the more prestigious Academy Awards begins Friday. In other words, razzmatazz matters !
