Awards Circuit Column: Will the Globes enforce its rules to stop drama-heavy films from running as comedies? It happens every year, in awards cycles for both film and television. Campaigners submit films, shows and individual performances in categories they have no business being in, like a drama masquerading as a comedy or a blatant leading role being tipped for a supporting category.
Industry reactions to some of these bold decisions, however, feel louder this year. This creative maneuvering with category submissions happens for a reason: to improve the perceived odds of winning a trophy. Yet increasingly, the misrepresentations are spilling into broader industry discourse. (Just Google the limited series “The Beast in Me,” which was greenlit for a second season and Emmy winner Matthew Rhys.) This year, these so-called crimes seem to be targeting comedy categories.
Curry Barker’s “Obsession,” made for $750,000 and now surpassing $500 million worldwide, was submitted by Focus Features as a musical or comedy for the Golden Globes, putting breakout star Inde Navarrette in the comedy actress race. But by and large, audiences were exposed to the horrors of a woman robbed of control over her own mind and body. Not long after, Bleecker Street submitted Mike Leigh’s “Tender Loving Care” in the same comedy categories.
Barely anyone blinked, perhaps because so few have seen it yet. The film features drunken sing-alongs and dancing with abandon in the family kitchen. It also features hospital visits and aging parents coming to terms with the final chapters of life.
Hardly a laughing matter for anyone who has seen their loved ones slow down. A chuckle does not equate to comedy. The strategists know it, and so do the Globes.
What’s missing is the nerve to define it and, more importantly, enforce it. A decade ago, Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” won the Golden Globe for best motion picture comedy. You know, the one about a man stranded on Mars, trying not to starve to death.
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