It was widely held that the overall favorite within the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. this year was Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” It makes sense for a movie about America, told from an outside perspective, perhaps tone deaf in some areas but certainly biting in others.
Some in the group felt it should not have been in the drama category, given its scathing black humor, but that wasn’t enough to derail its potential in the end. The organization showered McDonagh’s film with four awards Sunday night, including best picture, drama.Cue a hundred “what does it mean for the Oscars?” headlines…
It means precious little. To reiterate the usual point, this is a group of 80 or so foreign journalists, a far cry from an 8,000-strong group of industry professionals. What the HFPA does provide, however, is an opportunity in the thick of Oscar voting, a ceremony beamed into living rooms worldwide as Academy members sit with ballots in hand. So with that in mind, “Three Billboards” and this year’s best picture, comedy or musical, winner, “Lady Bird,” get to capitalize on the exposure.
But the tenor of the evening wasn’t at all one about what all of this portends in the Oscar (or Emmy) race. It was about an industry on the verge of a shift, and a rally cry that time is up.
Salma Hayek’s “Three Billboards” introduction crescendoed with that very refrain, from the stage and from the audience; Allison Janney pivoted “I, Tonya” to a larger idea about examining class; Gary Oldman remarked about how “Darkest Hour” reminds of the…
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