The Golden Globes organization announced Friday it would no longer pay the $75,000 annual salary awarded to former Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) members, the group who votes on the yearly film and TV award winners TheWrap has learned.
Golden Globes president Helen Hoehne shared the news in a special Zoom meeting on Friday, Feb. 28 to some 50 voting members. The move came as a shock to the former members of the HFPA who signed a five-year contract in June of 2023 with Penske Media Eldridge, the organization’s new owners, which guaranteed a base salary of $75,000 annually. The salary was specifically for voters who were grandfathered into the new organizational structure from the HFPA which was the previous Golden Globes voting body.
Hoehne notified the members they would be offered a severance package of $102,500. Each member – who has to apply for accreditation on a yearly basis – were allowed to continue on as voters in the 2026 Globes but will not be paid going forward.
The voting body had come under scrutiny for the paid element of its system in years past. The change to stop paying voters matches other major award processes including the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys, who all have members vote pro bono.
According to THR’s report, a spokesperson for the Golden Globes said the policy change was “an acknowledgement that continuing to pay members could add to a perception of bias in voting.” The rep also said that the severance package was in line with the contractual obligations the company was responsible for.
In 2021, the Golden Globes faced severe criticism after a bombshell Los Angeles Times investigation revealed the HFPA had no Black members. The organization was met with immediate backlash from prominent members of Hollywood including “Selma” director Ava DuVernay and powerhouse TV producer Shonda Rhimes, among others. The hashtag #TimesUpGlobes began trending and led to sweeping changes for the Globes.
One major change to the awards was the ownership. The HFPA was once nonprofit but is now the for-profit Golden Globes LLC and owned by Penske Media Corporation. The voting body also expanded from 87 members to over 300 members across 85 different countries. The 50 former members of HFPA now make up a small subset of the total voting body.
The Hollywood Reporter was first to break the news.
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