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HFPA event is unofficial kickoff to awards season

By Martin A. Grove

Aug 8, 2007

Camara conversation: The awards season gets off to an unofficial start tomorrow with the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.'s annual luncheon to present financial grants and install its newly elected officers.

Over the years the event has come to symbolize the kickoff to the awards season because gathered around these power tables in the Beverly Hills Hotel's Rodeo Ballroom are the Hollywood marketers who will compete in the coming months for Golden Globes nominations and wins as they pursue the ultimate Oscar gold. Not surprisingly, the luncheon's buzz is invariably about the pictures people think could be contenders for Globes and Oscars.

With so many marketers on hand for the HFPA event and with most of their films still unseen, there typically are many titles being talked about throughout lunch. At this point, in fact, almost any film that hasn't opened yet is a possible candidate. Moreover, those attending tomorrow's event aren't shy about advancing the prospects of the pictures they're working on. All it takes to get into the pack of titles the media will soon be focusing on as likely contenders is a distributor who believes enough in a picture to bankroll an awards campaign. Of course, once these early contenders start to be screened and shown at festivals their prospects will rise and fall and some will emerge as best bets.

Over the years, the HFPA luncheon has evolved into almost a mini-Globes with its own red carpet arrivals and a roster of high profile stars showing up to accept not statuettes but sizable checks from the HFPA on behalf of a wide range of fortunate film schools, film preservation groups and charities. As these contributions are handed out, a phalanx of TV news crews set up across the back of the ballroom will capture the celebrities in action and a few hours later the results will be seen all over the media.

This time around the HFPA plans to hand out a record $1.2 million in grants to 28 non-profit organizations and film schools. Among the celebrities attending the event to announce grants by the HFPA are (alphabetically): Marc Anthony, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lopez and Hilary Swank. Acceptance remarks are to be made by (alphabetically): Josh Brolin (for FilmAid International), Kate Del Castillo (for Inner-City Arts), Peter Falk (for Columbia University School of the Arts), Christine Lahti (for Sundance Institute), Masi Oka (for American Cinematheque) and Charlize Theron (for The Film Foundation, Inc.). It's giving-back on a large scale that's uncommon in Hollywood and the HFPA deserves applause for its generosity.