• The Golden Globes will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern. The show will be broadcast live by NBC.
• How will the first-time host Seth Meyers address the Harvey Weinstein fallout?
• The awards season has been wide open. Could a film like “The Post” or “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” have a big night?
• Oprah Winfrey will receive a lifetime achievement award. Will she give a speech reminiscent of Meryl Streep’s denunciation of Donald J. Trump last year?
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A night draped in black.
LOS ANGELES — In search of ratings, NBC has long promoted the Golden Globe Awards as less of a ceremony and more of a silly social gathering. The 75th installment will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern and has been advertised by the network as “Hollywood’s party of the year!”
Viewers may be very disappointed.
The 2018 Globes will be draped in black, quite literally, with actresses and some actors vowing to use their attire to make a statement about sexual harassment in Hollywood and other spheres. Winners are expected to use their moments of glory to rail against the systemic sexism and silence that allowed the behavior of men like Harvey Weinstein, James Toback, Louis C.K. and Kevin Spacey to fester for decades.
Continue reading the main storyOther topics discussed on the red carpet and from the stage inside the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom may include racism (several films up for awards, including “Get Out,” wrestle with that subject) and President Trump and his policies. “The Post,” Steven Spielberg’s newspaper drama, functions as a condemnation of the Trump administration’s attacks on journalists. It has six Globe nominations, including one for Meryl Streep, who criticized Mr. Trump from the Globe stage last year.
If anything, this year’s Globes will serve as a test for the more erudite Oscars, which are scheduled for March 4. Can Hollywood castigate itself and celebrate itself at the same time? And deliver a telecast and red carpet extravaganza that keep the ratings from tumbling?
NBC and the givers of the Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of 89 journalists, have been trying to assure viewers that the night will be as frothy as ever. NBC ran a star-studded Globes anniversary special in December — essentially a prime-time infomercial — and ceremony organizers have promised plentiful booze (125 cases of Moët & Chandon Champagne) and flowers (“vibrantly-colored red and orange roses displayed in glittering, diamond-wrapped gold containers”).
It could all add up to a moment when the Golden Globes finally grows up, becoming an event with equal parts solemnness and spectacle.
Or not. Even at 75, the Globes could just as easily add to its history of bungled moments, as when Jimmy Fallon froze as host at the start of last year’s ceremony; prizes were awarded to Renée Zellweger (2001) and Christine Lahti (1998) while they were in the bathroom; and the press association gave its 1982 new star of the year trophy to … Pia Zadora.
Here are five things to watch for during this year’s ceremony, which will be hosted for the first time by the late-night entertainer Seth Meyers.
Harvey Weinstein is on many minds.
“It’s nice to have an elephant in the room,” Mr. Meyers told The New York Times about the topic of sexual harassment in Hollywood. “There’s nothing more helpful than something everybody’s thinking about.”
Something and someone: Mr. Weinstein, who has been accused of misconduct by dozens of women — prompting police investigations, lawsuits and the collapse of his former studio — was a major figure at the Globes for decades. He was seen as a master manipulator of voters. He always sat at a prime table during the ceremony. His post-Globes parties, recently hosted with Netflix, were often the splashiest.
Will Mr. Meyers call out Mr. Weinstein by name in his monologue?
Oh, right. The awards.
The annual Oscar race, which starts with festival screenings in late summer, has been unusually chaotic this time around. For various reasons — Hollywood’s attention has been elsewhere, the plethora of strong choices in some categories and few in others — consensus has yet to form. So the Globes could bring some clarity.
One nail-biter is best drama. “The Post” could easily win. But so could “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” about a mother (Frances McDormand) who goes to extremes to keep local police focused on her daughter’s murder. And don’t count out “The Shape of Water,” an allegory about a mute janitor who falls in love with an imprisoned sea creature.
Where to Stream the Nominated Movies and TV Shows
Here’s a guide to the Golden Globes nominees that are both streamable and worth your time from Watching, The New York Times’s TV and movie recommendation site.
Gold Derby, an awards blog, has supporting actor as another tossup category. Running hot are Willem Dafoe from “The Florida Project,” about indigent families living in a motel, and Christopher Plummer, who replaced Mr. Spacey at the last minute in “All the Money in the World.” Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards”) is seen as not far behind.
A lift before the Oscars.
In truth, the Globes are often predictive of little. Top honors at the Oscars and the Globes only matched up once over the past three years. (Both agreed on “Moonlight” last year.) But the globular trophies are coveted by studios, which cozy up to the press association in hopes of receiving a box office-boosting blast of attention for winter movies.
A win by Timothée Chalamet, a best actor nominee, might help Sony Pictures Classics sell tickets for the gay romance “Call Me by Your Name,” for instance. That poetic film has taken in just $4.9 million at North American cinemas since its release in November. “Call Me by Your Name” has also hit some turbulence on the awards circuit. It was not nominated for the top Screen Actors Guild prize, for instance.
The similarly tiny “I, Tonya” might get a boost if Allison Janney takes the best supporting actress trophy. “The Post,” “All the Money in the World” and “Phantom Thread” are hoping for similar bumps.
It’s Oprah’s turn.
Oprah Winfrey is set to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, an honor that went to Ms. Streep last year — and ended up as a flash point in the Trump-era culture wars. During her acceptance speech, Ms. Streep went after Mr. Trump, targeting his skills as a showman and branding them as insidious. Mr. Trump fired back, calling Ms. Streep “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood.”
Will Ms. Winfrey deliver a political zinger of her own? If she does go on the attack, it will probably be against the entertainment industry: She has been involved in recent months with the creation of an ambitious anti-harassment action plan called Time’s Up.
Television has big stars, too.
While the press association’s movie awards receive the most attention because of their proximity to the Oscars race, the Globes ceremony relies on television categories for much of its star power. Making trips to the stage on Sunday could be Nicole Kidman, nominated for best actress in a limited series or made-for-TV movie (the now-continuing “Big Little Lies”); Sterling K. Brown, a best actor nominee for “This Is Us”; and Eric McCormack (“Will & Grace”), a favorite for best actor in a comedy.
Globe voters also love to support comedies that have debuted only recently. (See: “Transparent,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”) Benefiting from that tastemaker desire this time around could be “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” an Amazon series about a woman who becomes a stand-up comedian in the 1950s. It could win best comedy. At the same time, best actress in a comedy could easily go to Frankie Shaw, the star of the new Showtime series “SMILF,” about a working-class single mother in Boston.
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