The Golden Globes has more enemies than fans, thanks to the ceremony’s historically white, cis, Eurocentric focus and unethical behavior, among other things. But we have to give the reportedly diversified voting body some props: Following some big changes to both its membership demographics and its eligibility criteria, the newly acquired awards show may be putting on the most exciting program we’ve seen in quite some time in 2024. And all it took was finally paying attention to films outside of Hollywood, as this will be the first show in Globes history to feature a plethora of non-English-language films in top categories.
In June 2021, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association responded to heavy criticism it received for shunting awards-season favorites like Minari, The Farewell, and Parasite into one category: Best Motion Picture—Foreign Language. Per some horrendously outdated rules, films nominated for that award could not participate in the general Best Motion Picture categories, which are often considered more prestigious. (That’s an oft-racist and similarly backward belief, but we could talk about this forever.)
In response to the backlash, the organization changed things up for the 2022 ceremony: non-English-language films were eligible for Best Drama and Best Comedy. The HFPA also swapped out “Foreign” in the category name for “Non-English Language,” similar to the Academy changing Best Foreign Language to Best International Feature at the Oscars. These changes were among the HFPA’s last hurrah; the Globes’ new owners dissolved the organization earlier this year.
While at the Oscars, the Japanese film Drive My Car won Best International Feature and received a Best Picture nom in 2022, the two Globes ceremonies post-rules change haven’t had any such overlap. But this year, three of the six nominees for Best Drama are predominantly in languages other than English. Anatomy of a Fall (which is in French, German, and English), Past Lives (Korean and English), and The Zone of Interest (German) each earned a spot in the category, competing alongside Maestro, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon. The three films also appear in numerous other notable categories, including Screenplay (Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives), Director (Past Lives), Actor (Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives), and Original Score (The Zone of Interest).
And it’s not just these three films that have made it into the bigger categories. Fallen Leaves, a Finnish-German comedy, also scored a nod in an acting category (Alma Pöysti is competing for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture—Comedy). The Boy and the Heron, the latest film from Japanese powerhouse Studio Ghibli, not only received a Best Animated Picture nod, but it also earned a nod for its score.
There’s some quirks here, of course. Past Lives takes place mostly in New York and features a hefty dose of English; acting nominee Greta Lee turns in an astonishing performance, but a bilingual one at that. The same goes for Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall, a large part of which depends on the fact that her character’s French is not great, and her requests for the French legal system to allow her to speak in English complicates her case. At the same time, the diversity of language is a key part of each film: Anatomy of a Fall and Past Lives both involve the need for and the difficulties of multilingual communication. In that way, perhaps their crossover success is both especially fitting here and particularly of interest to an English-speaking audience.
While Barbie and Oppenheimer lead the pack with nine and eight nods, respectively, Past Lives is toward the top, with five nods. Anatomy of a Fall follows closely behind at four. And while Past Lives (a romantic drama) and Anatomy of a Fall (a crime story) have obvious general appeal, a movie as formally challenging as The Zone of Interest is an exciting one to see break into the Globes’ biggest category.
As much as we rightfully pooh-pooh the Globes for its checkered past and curious decisions—just take a gander at some of its TV nods for a reminder of how … idiosyncratic voters’s tastes can be!—spotlighting these films feels like an important step toward a more representative awards season. Now, whether any of these flicks will rack up some of these (very well-deserved) trophies remains to be seen: The 2024 Golden Globes airs on CBS Jan. 7, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET.
