All that glisters is not gold
Chloé Zhao has become the first Asian woman to win best director at the Golden Globes, for Nomadland. Barbara Streisand, who was the first and, until now, only woman to have won the title tweeted: It's about time!
I'm sticking my neck out here, but assuming that awards are given on merit (hohoho), perhaps no Asian woman has achieved best direction before now. Unless they've actively been excluded, presumably Streisand was expressing exasperation that only now has an Asian woman done anything worth recognising. Or are awards based on a quota system? Should we celebrate awardees on the basis of some social profile, rather than merit?
In all honesty, I think that industry awards like this are pretty meaningless, and US viewers appear to be like-minded. The ceremonies are simply back-slapping exercises, pandering to the egos of an out-of-touch elite.
As for the merit of the chosen winners, accepting that people's views are subjective, and mine no less so than anyone else's, mawkish Forrest Gump beat Pulp Fiction to Best Motion Picture, and Tom Hanks beat both Morgan Freeman—for his performance in The Shawshank Redemption—and John Travolta for Best Performance in a Motion Picture at the the 52nd Golden Globe Awards. But, does anyone outside the industry really give a shit about the Golden Globes, at least compared to the Oscars?
In the same year, 1995, Forrest Gump beat not only Pulp Fiction but also The Shawshank Redemption to Best Picture at the 67th Academy Awards, while Hanks beat not only Freeman and Travolta, but also Nigel Hawthorne—for his performance in The Madness of King George—for Best Actor. Any one of them would've been more worthy IMO. And that's about the point in time when I gave up caring about awards.
'Nuff sed.