The next Hollywood reboot? Try the awards season

You don’t see many 83-year-olds pull off a successful backflip. But the Golden Globes seems to have dramatically course-corrected back into relevance. The winners of the 83rd edition of the glitzy ceremony will be announced today (11 January) yet the nominations themselves were enough to reset expectations of what is usually seen as a frivolous curtain-raiser for the self-obsessed, overheated frenzy of Hollywood gong season.  

The film frontrunner is clearly revolutionary thriller One Battle After Another: the madcap Leonardo DiCaprio-starring movie from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has nine Globes nominations. What is more interesting is the nominees seem actually global, with subtitled movies making up almost half of the 12 Best Picture contenders across the Globes’ quirky split of categories.

Iran’s It Was Just an Accident, Brazil’s The Secret Agent and Norway’s much-admired Sentimental Value are competing in Best Picture (Drama), while South Korea’s No Other Choice and France’s Nouvelle Vague (directed by Richard Linklater, just in French) are up for Best Picture (Comedy/Musical).  

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There is still the recently introduced Golden Globe for Box Office and Cinematic Achievement, so movies that resonated more with audiences than critics can get their flowers. That’s where blockbusters like Avatar: Fire and Ash and F1 get a look in and, controversially, KPop Demon Hunters. Netflix’s animated musical is a cultural phenomenon, but whichever way you slice it, a streaming smash does not do a whole lot to help cinemas get bums on seats.

On the whole, though, the Globes are more credible than ever, suggesting that the 2023 reboot – where organisers the Hollywood Foreign Press Association sold the brand and promptly disbanded – has been a success. 

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Will a revitalised Globes have a knock-on effect? The Baftas and the Oscars have implemented category tweaks and voting changes over the years but those have tended to be incremental. An intriguing move from the Baftas this year has been to shift their nomination announcement to after that of the Academy Awards for the first time in decades.

Bafta have also tweaked the qualification requirements for the Outstanding British Film category, which has always existed rather awkwardly alongside Best Film (last year, papal nailbiter Conclave handily won both).

In the multinational world of film production and financing, nailing down what exactly constitutes a British film will always be a moving target. The current rules state that either the director or writer needs to be British for a film to qualify, although producers who believe their film is British enough via other criteria can make an appeal. 

Over the pond, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have continued to diversify their membership since #OscarsSoWhite was trending a decade ago. But perhaps the most surprising change to their 2026 rules is something the general public may have already assumed. This is the first year that Academy members must actually watch all the relevant nominees before they can be eligible to cast their vote in that category.

It sounds rather basic – surely you need to have seen all the Best Supporting Actress movies to make an informed decision? – but until now it wasn’t a requirement. At least they got round to it before the Oscars centenary in 2028. 

At such a volatile time for the movies in general – where both multiplexes and arthouse cinemas face uncertain futures, and film studios with decades of history are being gobbled up by streamers – all these awards feel more important than ever.

They are the yardsticks by which the industry measures itself. The fact that all the major awards organisations seem to be raising their standards? It can only be a good thing. Let’s just hope that they stay flexible and maintain the momentum. 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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