Amid ongoing controversy, the 79th annual Golden Globe Awards will look very different in 2022.

On Monday December 13, the nominees for the 2022 Golden Globes were announced, but rather than being met with a flurry of excitement there has been barely a murmur from those in the running. As we know, silence is often the loudest statement of them all, so what's behind this noiseless protest? Below, we trace the controversy that surrounds the 2022 Golden Globes and what we can expect from the forthcoming ceremony.

Why is the Hollywood Foreign Press Association facing backlash?

It's well-documented that Hollywood and the powers that be are severely lacking in diversity and transparency, but in the wake of Black Lives Matter and Times Up movement this is no longer being swept under the rug. Over the course of the past few years, actors, celebrities and the internet more broadly, have levelled critique at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) — the organisation behind the Golden Globes — reaching a general consensus that something has to give, or the Golden Globes have to go.

Following the Los Angeles Times investigation into the HFPA in February, these calls have become thunderous. What the investigation revealed was that not only were there no Black members of it's roughly 100 person large organisation — there hasn't been a single Black member for at least two decades — but the HFPA have been accused of "self-dealing", citing an example where 30 members were flown to France to visit the set of Emily in Paris in 2019. There are real life consequences of this, most memorably for Michaela Coel's masterpiece I May Destroy You, which was snubbed during the 2021 Awards in favour of the sugary Netflix series.

As you can imagine, the reaction was swift. More than 100 public relations firms sent letters to the HFPA formally withdrawing their celebrity clients until the organisation made meaningful changes. On top of this, major film studios like Netflix, Amazon Studios, WarnerMedia and HBO cut ties with the HFPA until they actioned plans for reform.

Another blow came a week after the HFPA made a public statement acknowledging its wrongdoings in response to the Los Angeles Times reporting. This time NBC — long time broadcaster of the Golden Globe Awards — announced that it would be terminating its contract to air the ceremony in 2022, while actor Tom Cruise, in a more symbolic move, returned all three of his Golden Globe trophies. 

Will the 2022 Golden Globes still go ahead?

Yes, they will. However, expect a few changes. Namely, the ceremony will not be broadcast on NBC as has been previously stated. When making this decision, the network said: “We continue to believe that the HFPA is committed to meaningful reform. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right."

Instead, we expect audiences to be able to view the ceremony in a similar fashion to that of the nominees announcement, through a YouTube livestream. Although, considering the controversy that surrounds the ceremony we're pretty certain celebrities and actors will be eschewing the 2022 festivities, opting instead to attend the 2022 Critics Choice Awards which is set to take place on the same evening, specifically January 9, 2022.

Who are the 2022 Golden Globe nominees?

Find a complete list of the 2022 Golden Globes nominees across television and film, below.

FILM

Best actress in a motion picture (Drama)

• Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
• Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
• Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
• Lady Gaga, House of Gucci
• Kristen Stewart, Spencer

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