“I did expect this and if I hadn’t won, I would have cramped.” It is January 28, 1984, at the 31^st Annual GG and in the grand ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel; Shirley MacLaine has just grabbed the Golden Globe she won for Terms of Endearment. The audience loves it, and she goes on. “It must have been confusing for the members of the HFPA to decide whether to put all our performances in (…) Drama or Comedy. Maybe if they had had a category called Life, it would have been easier because that’s what it was like making the movie.”
Life indeed breathes in films with tenderness and passion as the 80s are well on their way, offering a different sensitivity that seems to reflect a switch in tastes. Remember a few of the 80s’ best films: Amadeus, Born on the 4^th of July, Out of Africa, Rain Man, Romancing the Stone, Working Girl, Hannah and Her Sisters, Prizzi’s Honor, The Silence of the Lambs, Driving Miss Daisy. And what about the foreign ones? The Last Emperor, Indochine, Pelle the Conqueror, My Life as a Dog. Their originality is inspiring, as diverse as the countries they come from, forcing Hollywood to reflect on their impact.
Independent cinema, in the wake of its two frontmen, Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh, is starting its prodigious ascent.
Other memorable films of the time include Once Upon a Time in America,The Mission, Fatal Attraction, Barfly as well as lighter fare like Footloose, Gremlins, Back to the Future, and Ghostbusters. Did we mention Bruce Willis, Arnold and Sly, Tom Hanks, all the new bankable heroes who will reign supreme at the box office for so long to still be relevant today? And what about the unavoidable anthems of those years: “Take My Breath Away” from the Top Gun soundtrack, “Flashdance … What a feeling”, “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from The Woman in Red? Don’t they still resonate in your ears? Don’t be ashamed to admit it!

In 1984, Cher, Best Actress, Comedy or Musical for Moonstruck, with presenters Jeff Bridges and Leslie Ann Warren. 

HFPA Archives

The cinema of the 80s is incredibly fun, cocky, and creative, exploring all sorts of themes, offering all sorts of rides. Don’t look for a common denominator except for inventiveness, emotion, pleasure, cult impact, and extraordinary artistic ambition.
Clint Eastwood will earn the first of his four Golden Globes for best director, in 1989 for Bird.
During that decade, the choices for the Cecil B. deMille Award really reflect the strong ties between the journalists of the Foreign Press and Hollywood. They single out screen legends whose humanitarian work and charitable endeavors have transcended their movie careers. Liz Taylor, who tirelessly fights against AIDS, but also Robert Mitchum and Doris Day, Barbara Stanwyck and Lauren Bacall, Jack Lemmon, and Paul Newman. 
It is still fascinating that the membership of the HFPA, who grows steadily during that decade, with more and more press conferences organized each year, is able to never miss the arrival of new talent and accompany them along the way while they make their mark in the history of American cinema, becoming part of their journey around the globe.