GOLDEN GLOBES
How to get nominated
Lobbying. The Globes’ old-fashioned rubric says that distributors have to get the voters to a screening of their movie “in the LA area” by early December. In fact, all the usual rules of movie hype apply.
Who votes/How are the votes cast?
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Voting is done in two phases — nominations and final vote. With such a small membership, it can take as few as five votes for a film to win.
Is that the end? Who decides the winners?
As the first awards of the year, the Golden Globes are particularly susceptible to lobbying by studios and artists. In 1999 the HFPA president Helmut Voss ordered all 82 members to return watches sent by Sharon Stone as a promotion for a nomination for her performance in The Muse.
Does the right person always win?
In 1981 the HFPA was criticised after it was revealed that an award given to Pia Zadora for the film Butterfly had been preceded by a lavish junket for voters in Las Vegas courtesy of her husband, the film’s producer.
Advertisement
THE ACADEMY AWARDS
How to get nominated
By “campaigning” for your film in a deluge of movie marketing. “Screenings must not be accompanied by receptions, buffets or other refreshments,” they say.
Who votes/How are the votes cast?
There are 6,000 academy members, from Jack Nicholson to Third Dolly Grip. Each indicates his or her top five movies in each category. Nominations are then determined using a system of “preferential voting” (calculating not one but five winners in each category).
Is that the end? Who decides the winners?
It takes PricewaterhouseCoopers seven days to calculate the nominations. After this, the final votes are simple: the nominee receiving the most votes wins.
Advertisement
Does the right person always win?
One surprise loser was Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler last year. He had already won a Golden Globe and a Bafta. But it was the press and the people who wanted Rourke to win; the industry went for Sean Penn, the actor’s actor, instead.
BRIT AWARDS
How to get nominated
Hype and record sales. Potentials for the Critics’ Choice Award (artists who haven’t released an album yet) stand a good chance if their PRs start lobbying music journalists in September about “hot young things to watch”. See: Ellie Goulding.
Who votes/How are the votes cast (one category)?
A thousand industry members, from music journalists to NUS entertainments officers. Organisers claim that the big labels make up only 12 per cent of the vote. There are also four categories open to the public.
Advertisement
Is that the end? Who decides the shortlist/winners?
Votes are counted by terrifying-sounding Independent Official Scrutinisers. Something to do with the Electoral Reform Services.
Does the right person always win?
The decisions are generally seen as pretty conservative and since the mid-1990s they have represented the dominant, youngish British act each year. How strange to think that the Darkness were the faces of 2004 . . .
NATIONAL TELEVISION AWARDS
How to get nominated
BARB ratings determine what makes the longlist, but there’s a very special place for ITV programmes as ITV is behind the whole show. Ant & Dec and Coronation Street always seem to do particularly well, as does the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Advertisement
Who votes/How are the votes cast?
You do! Well, you can choose the shortlist from a longlist drawn up by ITV. Do this by e-mail, by phone or text message — but if you try to vote more than once for anything, you’ll be busted. They’re careful about that kind of thing these days . . .
Is that the end? Who decides the winners?
After the shortlist there’s another round to choose the winners — again, at the click of a mouse. Because they’re picked by the public the winners are diplomatically described as “most popular” rather than “best”.
Does the right person always win?
This is television. Who cares who wins if you can see the Stig accept an award for Top Gear or David Tennant resigning as Doctor Who by live satellite link while playing Hamlet in Stratford?
BAFTAS (film)
Advertisement
How to get nominated
Your film must have been exhibited publicly to a paying audience in a UK commercial cinema for no fewer than seven days during the given time period. Then lobby members so that your DVD gets to the top of their pile.
Who votes/How are the votes cast?
There are 6,500 members and three voting rounds. The first creates a longlist of 15 films in each category, the second whittles that down to five films and the third decides the winners.
Is that the end? Who decides the winners?
The big awards (such as Best Film, and the four performance categories) are selected by all academy members. In all the technical categories, each specialist “chapter” votes for the winner, while a small jury decides on the Short Film awards.
Does the right person always win?
British films and films with UK talent get priority, so in that sense the Baftas does what it says on the tin. Last year Revolutionary Road lost out in the Best Director and Best Actor categories, “because it was just too grim for the public mood”, one voter suggests. But Kate Winslet got an award.