Golden Globes Faces Backlash Over ‘Minari’ Best Picture Shut Out

The 2021 Golden Globes are still months away, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is already under fire for its decision to shut out Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari from Best Picture categories. As confirmed by Variety, Chung’s Minari movie will follow the precedent set by Lulu Wang’s The Farewell and instead compete as a foreign language film, as it is primarily in Korean. Hollywood heavyweights, including Wang, have slammed the HFPA’s Minari shut out, and the move has already been blasted as “racist” and “complete bullshit.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Variety reported a series of changes following the HFPA’s annual review of film submissions. The review saw Promising Young Woman shift from the comedy to drama races and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm breakout Maria Bakalova move to the best lead actress in a comedy or musical category (she was submitted as a supporting actress), among other changes, but it was the designation of Minari as a foreign language film that really made headlines. According to Variety, Minari “will be considered in foreign language film because it is primarily in Korean,” but “stars Steven Yeun and Yeri Han will still be eligible in the leading acting categories in drama.”

It didn’t take long for the news to make its way to film critics and Hollywood stars, who promptly slammed the decision. “We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterizes American as only English-speaking,” tweeted Wang, director of 2019 film The Farewell, which received similar treatment from the HFPA. “The #GoldenGlobes refusing to acknowledge #Minari except as a foreign language film is straight up racist Eurocentric thinking,” added actress Cindy Chu.

Minari has long been a top awards contender, even before the COVID-19 pandemic altered the schedule. The drama debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. Despite the Best Picture snub, fans can expect Minari to have a strong showing when Golden Globe nominees are announced on February 3, 2021, one week before the film’s wide release on February 12.