Golden Globes Around The World

  Belgian filmmakers Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch weren’t expecting to win the top Jury Prize when they showed their film, The Eight Mountains, at the Cannes Film Festival this year. So much so, that the real-life couple had left France the day before the award ceremony and were hurriedly summoned back with only hours to spare before accepting the prize.

When Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont won the 2018 Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard prize for his trans-female ballet dancer film debut, Girl, he couldn’t have imagined four years later he would be back – not just showing his second film, Close, but taking home the Grand Prize. “When I heard that the Cannes film festival wanted to put this film in competition among many directors that I deeply admire, like Kelly Reichardt, Claire Denis, and David Cronenberg, I was in an Airbnb in Amsterdam and I jumped around for 25 minutes straight and then called my mother and shouted into the phone!” the writer-director told fellow Belgian colleague, HFPA member Greet Ramaekers, in our “Golden Globes Around the World” podcast.

OUTFEST was established in 1982 in Los Angeles as the first and only global LGBTQIA+ arts, media, and entertainment organization to support artists, communities, and filmmakers to change the world through their stories. Every year, the non-profit organization hosts over 300 screenings and panels, and six programs and engages with over 50,000 attendees.

George Takei is best-known around the world as Hikaru Sulu, later Captain Sulu, on the fictional Starship Enterprise in the beloved sci-fi series, Star Trek. The openly gay actor, author, activist, and social media influencer sat down during Pride month with HFPA member Brent Simon for an episode of our podcast series, Golden Globes Around the World to talk about his 2019 New York Times bestselling graphic memoir “They Called Us Enemy” - which recently returned in a deluxe edition with 16 pages of bonus material and has also been translated in additional languages to truly reach around the world The fearless, funny 85-year-old star pulled no punches as he talked about his years behind barbed wire with his family in Japanese American internment camps and reveals how a guest role in the Archie Comics series Riverdale led to his decision to tell his own story in a graphic novel.

As the Hollywood Foreign Press Association joined the world in celebrating the recent 75th annual Cannes Film Festival, there was one movie that stood out for many. So much so, that HFPA Japanese member Itsuko Harai excitedly suggested we talk to Plan 75 writer, director, and cinematographer, Chie Hayakawa about her feature film debut and she became the only filmmaker who took part in an episode of the Golden Globes Around the World podcast during the festival.

In case you were living in a cave with no internet (and the lack of internet does feature prominently in this podcast), you might have missed the return of the in-person Cannes Film Festival with all the pomp and pageantry one would expect from the preeminent European festival that celebrates both the world’s filmmaking elite, from Tom Cruise to David Cronenberg, to foreign indie directors who took home big prizes again this year. Check out the list of winners and more coverage on www.

Only a few years ago, Slava Vakarchuk was touring the world as the famous lead singer of Okean Elzy, the most decorated rock band in Ukraine. Now he’s touring his own country, but this time it’s in his role as a soldier staying behind to support Ukraine troops fighting the Russians.

Last month, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced an additional grant of $75,000 to the New York-based non-profit organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists, targeted to help their efforts in Ukraine. Since 2017, the HFPA has granted them almost $2 million to defend press freedom worldwide and protect journalists and their right to report the news freely and without fear.

Kyle Bowser – the Senior Vice President of the Hollywood bureau of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) – is very familiar with the acronym DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Fiercely committed to all of them, he’s still questioning where it all fits in with Hollywood today.

Over the past decade, Finnish writer/director Aku Louhimies has established himself as one of the preeminent directors of Scandinavian cinema today. Among his nine feature films are the European film award nominees 8-Ball (2013) and Frozen Land (2005), and he’s also responsible for the highly acclaimed 2016 five-part TV event series, Rebellion, about the birth of independent Ireland.