Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) nixes press conferences for 2023 Golden Globes

There will be no HFPA exclusive press conferences this year.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced today that the organization will not hold any press conferences for eligible content of the 80^th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

“The HFPA will not be hosting any press conferences during the current awards cycle,” said Helen Hoehne, president of the HFPA. “Our commitment remains on recognizing the very best in film and television both in the U.S. and abroad and bringing the Golden Globes to a global television and streaming audience. With the expansion of the voting body and the increase in eligible content this year, we are focused on the nominations and making the 80th a historic event to remember.”

In recent press conferences during the awards cycle, inappropriate or odd questions were being asked from HFPA members, including when South African journalist Margaret Gardiner, on video, mistook Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah) for Leslie Odom, Jr. in 2021 and asked the actor what it was like to work with Regina King (who had directed Odom in One Night in Miami). Hoehne emphasized that HFPA press conferences were never a requirement for Golden Globe consideration.

Franklin Leonard, founder of The Black List and a TV and film producer, shared the video, tweeting, “There’s a dissertation to be written about this interaction and this interaction alone. State of the system in one minute… Even mere minutes after you win an #Oscar for playing Fred Hampton. Even then.”

This was preceded and followed by several, systemic controversies within the HFPA that had been boiling over for decades; from the lack of diversity within the less than 100-member voting group, who had zero Black members, to payola-style allegations including extravagant gifts and trips by studios and networks in search of nominations and wins. The HFPA’s efforts to expand their membership (adding 103 new voters), shaking up its board and splitting the org into two separate entities (one that remains a non-profit for their philanthropic work, one that is now a for-profit machine that will put on the awards) and after NBC pulled the plug on airing the show last year has come around with a one-year contract to host the Golden Globes once again, this time on a Tuesday instead of Sunday, to avoid the NFL football schedule.

Nominations for the 2023 Globes will be revealed December 12. The 80^th Annual Golden Globe Awards are scheduled to be broadcast live on NBC and Peacock on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET from the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.