Hollywood — or at least what passes for it on the Internet — is buzzing this morning with news of the Golden Globe Award nominations. This always amuses me no end because there is not one person in the industry who really, deep down, thinks these awards are meaningful except for this: If there's an award out there, it's better to win it than to not win it. Not winning it means you lost something, never mind that no one thinks the selection process is at all functional. Winning means you get to go to the big awards ceremony (they do put on a good party) and you get lots of attention and applause and your movie gets to say "X Golden Globe Awards" in its ads, which might trick someone somewhere into seeing it. More important, it might — and it's a big "might" there — create some momentum which will translate into Academy Award consideration and even wins. Maybe.
There's some question as to who votes for the Oscars and whose opinions they reflect…but the Golden Globes? Nobody really knows who picks them or who gives them or what the process is. When winners get up there and thank the voters and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, they have no idea who the voters are or how many there are or even WTF the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is. It's some sort of group that has promoted their award into a real attention-getter…and like I said, they do put on a good party. For all anyone knows, they pick their nominees out of a hat and then someone goes eenie-meenie-minie-moe to decide which one gets the trophy.
Still, there's a real Royal Nonesuch quality to it all. If you win one, you have to get up there and talk about what a great honor it is because…well, you've got one. It's up to you to sell people on the idea that it's a great honor. I get the feeling that most winners don't manage to ever sell themselves; that they get home, put the trophy on their mantle and then think, "Wow! One or more people somewhere thought I was the Best Actor of last year!"