Madeleine Stowe and Sofia Vergara are the only names you’ll recognize, but there are others hiding behind the scenes
The Golden Globe Award nominations have been announced. And around the world, nobody held their breath. Amid and amongst the many odd categories and familiar names, a few Latinos have surfaced, but really, there’s very little unexpected. And the number of Latinos is, as usual, disappointingly low.
The GoGlo’s have become somewhat…problematic for most people, especially in the last couple of years. It had long been thought that the Foreign Press Association had developed the habit of bending to studio pressure; that became hideously obvious last year when the less-than-mediocre Depp/Jolie movie The Tourist–recognized as such by critics and audiences alike—was touted as a major player. Then awareness of the embarrassing prejudice was set in stone when Ricky Gervais hosted the televised awards ceremony and made merciless fun of the very organization that was paying the bill. Now it’s almost an accepted fact that the Golden Globes are a tool of the studio system; the FPA has tacitly admitted it themselves by bringing Gervais back as host again, even after (or maybe because) he spoke truth to power.
In any event, there are some lucky Latinos sprinkled throughout the nominations, including Bérénice Bejo for her supporting role in The Artist, Madeleine Stowe for her work in Revenge and (almost inevitably, it seems) Sofia Vergara for Modern Family. And there are a few others behind honored, though you’d have to know a bit about the movie or TV series in question to realize it.
For instance, directors Pedro Almodóvar’s film The Skin I Live In was nominated for Best Foreign Film…but the noms don’t name the directors, just the movies. Antonio Banderas, who starred in the film, and the rest of the Latin cast go unnominated and unnamed as well.
Rodrigo García’s film, Albert Nobbs, didn’t garner a Director of “Best Film” nomination, but two of its (non-Latino) actors, Glenn Close and Jane McTeer, were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Still, you’d think Garcia must have had something to do with their performances.
Antonio Banderas and his persona–as well as his velvet voice–was key to the success of Puss in Boots as well, but only the movie title is specific in the list of Best Animated Films. Congratulations anyway, Antonio. Sort of.
And Vergara and Rico Rodriguez, as well as Naya Rivera and Lea Michelle can bask in the reflected glory of their respective shows being nominated for Best Comedy Series, but the GoGlo’s don’t list ensemble casts, so…really, that’s about it. A total of 21 movies and 29 TV series, mini-series and TV movies nominated, and only 2 of them have Latinos in the regular cast. A total of 70 individual actors nominated, and only 2 of them Latino (and only one recognized by most people as Latino at all).
It would be easy to spend the day listing all the films and series and actors that didn’t get nominated by the GoGlo’s, and should have been. But this is nothing new for the FPA. Better just to congratulate the (few) Latinos mentioned by name, smile at the movies as they go by, and–like the riot police say, “Move along, move along. Nothing to see here.”
Check out the full list of nominations here.
