11 May 2021
Decades of failures around diversity and inclusion finally caught up with Hollywood Monday, when NBC made the unprecedented decision not to air the Golden Globes next year following backlash against the group that hosts the show.
Why it matters: NBC has been airing the event exclusively for decades. Its decision to pull back speaks to how big the backlash against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has become.
Driving the news: Over the weekend and on Monday, concerns that HFPA hasn't done enough to embrace diversity among its ranks hit a breaking point.
- Leaders at Amazon, Netflix and WarnerMedia put out statements saying they refuse to work with the HFPA until new reforms are enacted. Stars including Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo have also joined calls against the group.
- Ahead of the Golden Globes earlier this year, a report revealed that none of the HFPA's members are Black.
The latest: Following the news from NBC, the HFPA released a new timetable for its reform plan.
The big picture: Hollywood is facing a slew of unprecedented business and culture challenges following the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests last year.
- A collapse in ratings for the industry's beloved award shows, and a slow recovery at the box office this year, show how much streaming has taken over the industry.
- With streamers gaining power, more attention has been brought to shortcomings around diversity and inclusion. Initial calls to boycott the HFPA from Amazon and Netflix led legacy companies to later join the protest.
Be smart: Streaming has also made mid-budget movies less potent at the box office, forcing major studios to rally around big action and adventure franchises.
- With most North American theaters still limited in capacity, major studios have pushed blockbuster hits further away on the release schedule, leaving an opening for mid-budget Chinese movies to capture international attention.
- China's "Hi, Mom" has becoming the highest-grossing film globally so far in 2021, followed by China's "Detective Chinatown." Both films are comedies.
- The Chinese box office overtook North America for the first time last year. It's expected to continue to surpass the North American box office for years to come.
What to watch: Legacy entertainment giants are trying to reorient their businesses around streaming, but can't let go of their more profitable businesses, like cable and theaters.
- The result is that tech companies have been able to allocate much more resources towards streaming.
The bottom line: Hollywood shut down in 2020, only to reemerge upside down in 2021.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.
