At this point in an already established journey — from an improvised get-together, 31 years before, to well-organized galas in the International Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills — the Golden Globes had become an awards season staple, marking the elements that speak loud and clear: things are changing.
Yes, there was an Earthquake among the nominees of the 32nd Golden Globe Awards ceremony, on January 25, 1975 — two of them, in fact: Best Motion Picture – Drama, and Best Original Score, by John Williams. Fred Astaire also won the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for The Towering Inferno.
But the turn of the already rebellious late 1960s had launched for good a new generation of filmmakers, films, and ideas.
Disaster movies had peaked gloriously at the turn of the decade, from Airport to The Towering Inferno, with The Poseidon Adventure in between — all financial successes, and a vast canvas for cinematic experimentation with some of the newly emerging tools of special effects.

But at the same speed, young filmmakers inspired by European cinema, pushed by bolder ideas, and supported by lighter and faster cameras, were counterpointing the calamities with new visual narratives, abetted in their visionary pioneering by a batch of equally young and bold actors.
The 1975 Golden Globes marked that turn. It was the night of Francis Ford Coppola, nominated for two pictures in the same year, The Conversation and The Godfather Part II, as well as Roman Polanski, whose Chinatown would take home four Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture – Drama; Best Director; Best Screenplay, for Robert TowneJack Nicholson.

And that was just on the winners’ side. Along with Nicholson, new names took their place on the list of the year’s nominees, faces, and talent that would establish that the industry was fast-changing: Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Karen Black, Diane Ladd, Bruce Dern, Sam Waterston, and Valerie Harper.
And if television was a bit behind the clear changes of the big screen, new and bold shows were recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association: All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Streets of San Francisco (starring Michael Douglas), and The Mary Tyler Moore Show all received nominations.

The year 1975 established a turning point: Hollywood was changing fast, becoming younger and more daring.
Twelve months later, at the 33rd Golden Globe Awards, a young guy who was born with a camera in his hands would push it even further, taking what could have been a simple story about a big fish and some men, and turning it into fresh cinema. His name was Steven Spielberg, but that’s a new story.