75th Golden Globe Awards

“My Husband’s Wife (Tokal), is the story of two women who find out that they have the same husband. Produced, written, directed and starring the lovely Gauikhar (Gia) Noortas (as Bota), the movie is the much-talked-about drama in Kazakshtan and Kyrgyzstan as it handles the taboo topics of infidelity, immorality and the abuse of power of wealthy, powerful men.

A highly political drama that shows the implications of celebrity culture and the influence of fame on sensitive topics like religion, is the premise of The Preacher, an Egyptian film by director Magdi Ahmed Ali. Sheikh Hatem (Amr Saad) is a high-profile television celebrity and talk-show host in a society influenced by fundamentalist views.

Lipstick Under My Burkha is an Indian black comedy film that tells the story of four small town Indian women, ages 18 to 55, who are asserting their personal and sexual rights. Written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and produced by Prakash Jha, the controversial film almost did not make it on the big screen in India when it was initially denied a release in January 2017 after the country’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refused a certificate stating that “There are contagious (sic) sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a big sensitive touch about one particular section of society.

The Wedding Plan is an Israeli romantic comedy in which Michal (Noa Koler) is a young-ish woman who's been trying to get hitched for years. All her clocks are ticking like with many of Jane Austen heroines or, more recently, Bridget Jones.

Layla M. , a Dutch entry in the 2018 Golden Globe race for Best Foreign-Language Film, is a hard-hitting drama about Islamic extremism.

Every year, the Dubai International Film Festival takes a couple of films from Arabic countries that were screened successfully in December, and sponsors them to participate in the Golden Globes, organizing an evening of cinema from that region that is becoming a tradition in the HFPA calendar. One of the films selected for that special night this year was Tramontane, the feature debut of Vatche Boulghourjian which won the Muhr Award for Best Actress for Julia Kassar, an important accolade in Arab cinema.

In 2009, 47-year-old Samuel Maoz was the first Israeli to win the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival with his directorial debut Lebanon. His second film, Foxtrot, was awarded the Silver Lion this year.

It was a double en plein at the awards for the third and final episode of the The Lord of the Rings saga -The Return of the King: four  Golden Globe nominations, four wins; 11 Academy Award nominations, 11 wins, an unprecedented feat. The final confrontation between the forces of good and evil fighting for control of Middle-Earth, conquered everything and everybody; Hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and faithful companion Sam (Sean Astin) reach Mordor in their quest to destroy the "one ring", while Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) leads the forces of good against Sauron's evil army.

Sofia Coppola’s poignant relationship comedy had no competition that year. It was unquestionably the best in its field and became a strong contender for the Oscar as well.

In an impressive one-two punch, Nicole Kidman won the Golden Globes for Best Actress, Drama for The Hours, just a year after besting the corresponding Comedy/Musical category with her performance in Moulin Rouge!. Never mind Kidman was almost unrecognizable under a prosthetic nose and other makeup effects in the role of novelist Virginia Woolf: she was the actress of the moment.