Its understandable why people think these awards shows arent for us. Next months Golden Globes nominations were announced this week and social media noticed the lack of representation in the nominations.Among other obvious snubs (When They See Us), Queen & Slim Director Melina Matsoukas is speaking out against the Golden Globes, claiming voters refused to watch her film, Variety reports, even though others strongly feel that it was the film of the year.
Melina said she had already been warned by her team that the membership of Hollywood Foreign Press Association, comprised of about 90 international journalists who vote on the Golden Globes, had skipped multiple screenings of Queen & Slim that had been set for them.
We held three screenings for the HFPA and almost no members attended, Matsoukas said. For me, its reflective of their voting body. Its not reflective of the society in which we live in or the industry as it stands today. They dont value the stories that represent all of us, and those stories are so often disregarded and discredited, as are their filmmakers.
She added: Its extremely discouraging. Its extremely infuriating. And it just represents an archaic system that is full of people who dont value us.
Queen & Slim, was written and produced by Lena Waithe and stars Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith. The film has grossed nearly $30 million at the domestic box office, outperforming analysts expectations.
A representative for the HPFA disputes the claim that members didnt watch the film. The rep says all voters had been sent screeners and could have seen it at home. The HFPA maintains that Queen & Slim was in the conversation amongst the membership, the organization told Variety in a statement.
Sources told Variety that Universal Pictures tried to persuade the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press into seeing Queen & Slim. But after three different screenings, only a few HFPA voters had attended one source puts the number at four despite Queen & Slims strong reviews.
The Hollywood Foreign Press took a lot of heat this week for not nominating a single female director or screenwriter for the Golden Globes despite the fact that women shined this year in filmmaking.
