The Golden Globe Awards honor artists and professionals for their distinguished work in the field of television and films. It is a major gala event in the world of cinema and Hollywood that is held annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) during the US film industry's awards season and attended by high-profile celebrities, journalists and other eminent guests. Filled with much glitz, glamour and excitement the event spans for almost eight decades and has over the years witnessed many historic wins and setting of significant records. Several fascinating facts and legends are also associated with this star-studded entertainment awards ceremony that is much awaited and viewed by millions worldwide.
Some Interesting Facts & Records about the Golden Globes
Eight Los Angeles based foreign journalists, reporting on the US entertainment industry for publications mainly in non-US media markets, established the Hollywood Foreign Correspondent Association (HFCA), the precursor of the HFPA, in 1943. The association intending to create an awards ceremony to honor notable achievements in motion picture, just as the Oscars, launched the Golden Globe Awards.
The 1st Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held on January 20, 1944, in a more informal way at the 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles, California, and scrolls were presented to the winners as awards to honor their distinguished achievements in cinema for the year 1943.
The HFCA members conceived the plan of presenting the winners with a statuette portraying a golden globe, with a strip of motion-picture film wrapped around it, mounted on a pedestal before the 2nd Golden Globe Awards ceremony.
HFPA started honoring outstanding television works starting from the 13th Golden Globe Awards held in February 1956. A couple of years later, NBC started broadcasting the event locally in Los Angeles and the first national broadcast of the event happened in 1964.
Members of the association who were journalists presented the Golden Globes till 1958 following which celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. hosted the annual event.
American actress Meryl Streep holds the record of being the most-nominated performer with 32 nominations and garnering most competitive wins with 8 awards in the history of the Golden Globes.
Producers of the 1969 political-thriller film Z refused to accept the Best Foreign Film award in 1970 as the film was excluded from the category of Best Motion Picture – Drama.
In 1973, legendary American actor Marlon Brando did not attend the Golden Globe Awards. A couple of months later he boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony, refused to accept Best Actor award for The Godfather to protest US "imperialism and racism" and sent a representative at the ceremony to announce the reasons for his declining the Oscar award.
Barbra Streisand became the first woman to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Motion Picture for Yentl (1983). She also holds the record of winning the most Golden Globe awards bagging ten which includes both competitive and honorary categories.
Four actors who garnered two acting wins in the same year are Sigourney Weaver (1989), Joan Plowright (1993), Helen Mirren (2007) and Kate Winslet (2009).
Three actresses namely Jodie Foster (for The Accused), Sigourney Weaver (for Gorillas in the Mist) and Shirley MacLaine (for Madame Sousatzka) won Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama award in 1989, marking the only three-way tie that occurred in history of the Golden Globes.
La La Land (2016) bagged seven awards at the 74th Golden Globe Awards and with this holds the record of winning the maximum number of awards won by a single film in the event’s history. It also boasts of winning every category it was nominated for. Three other films which also won all the categories for which they were nominated are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) with six nominations and wins; and A Star Is Born (1976) and Gandhi (1982) each of which garnered five nominations and wins.
Nashville (1975) earned a total of 11 nominations at the 33rd Golden Globe Awards and with this holds the record of highest number of nominations received by a single film. Among these nominations, four were in the Best Supporting Actress category which in itself remains unusual for any major film award ceremony. The film eventually won just one Golden Globe award in the Best Original Song category for "I'm Easy" (Keith Carradine).
The films Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Foul Play (1978), Ragtime (1981) and The Godfather Part III (1990) received seven nominations each however did not win any award.
American actor and filmmaker Ricky Schroder became the youngest Golden Globe award recipient, when in 1980, at age nine, he won in the New Star of the Year – Actor category for his debut performance in the film The Champ; while at age 87, noted Italian composer Ennio Morricone became the oldest person to bag a Golden Globe Award after winning in the Best Original Score category for The Hateful Eight in 2016.