Diversity reigns at the Hollywood Film Awards

Nicole Kidman, Glenn Close and Hugh Jackman were among the names of the stars awarded for their performances in 2018.

"It's amazing," said actress and rapper Awkwafina about the opportunity to organize the Hollywood Film Awards. "I want to organize these awards since I discovered them two weeks ago," she joked.

The HFAs do not have quite the Golden Globes' pop cultural cachet nor the prestige of the Academy Awards, but this year's party – produced by Dick Clark Productions, which shares a parent company with The Hollywood journalist – attracted a prestigious list of pre-determined winners (including Glenn Close, Hugh Jackman, Timothy Chalomet and Nicole Kidman), and the evening, one of the events marking the start of the awards season, served as a potential campaign Trophies will be seriously pursued in the coming weeks.

After an exceptional year in the sets of two Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean & # 39; s 8, Awkwafina presented the event, once again held in her traditional home at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, emitting a light, loose and teasing, irreverent tone, which was followed by a series of lively and simple tributes, without suspense, to many become familiar faces as the rewards race worsens over the next few months.

The success of the diversity-rich films, which broke both cultural norms and box office records throughout the year 2018, was celebrated throughout the evening, with special attention being paid at Crazy Rich Asians – the international distribution, fully Asian, won the overall prize for breakthrough – and Black Panther, who received the Hollywood Film Award, the HFA takes a distinction of best image.

"I've been working around the world for a very long time, for 30 years, and it's the first time I've been part of an all-Asian cast," Crazy Rich Asians Star Michelle Yeoh said on stage. "I can tell you that the honor of receiving this award and the importance of this award do not escape us.We are delighted to be part of this revolutionary moment in Hollywood.A long time for this to happen. produce and this victory is not only for us personally, but for representation and inclusion.This is just the beginning.The doors are open.

"I spent more time running this movie than any other film I did and I think that's what made the difference," said the director of the film, Jon M. Chu. THR before the ceremony. "Our distribution is so strong, every piece from them, they shovel, and we wrote to them at some point." He also stated that he was not prepared for anything the public would represent.

"I think I understood this intellectually, on a personal level," said Chu, "but to see the lobbies full of people after the movie, for an hour, talk about it, see people disguise themselves, they take their grandparents back – I've never seen a movie that I realized that had such an impact.I do not know.That makes me realize the power of the film and of the power we have as filmmakers to do something and to advance the art. "

Black Panther Filmmaker Ryan Coogler revealed on stage that during a recent evening meeting with his wife Zinzi Evans, who was meeting at Target, he had been struck by a subtle moment revealing the tremendous impact of the movie.

"We were in the costumes section because it was before Halloween, and I was talking and I was looking at something else, and Zinzi tapped me on it and said: Hey, look at that. " It was a Hispanic family from the costume section, and a young man was about eight years old. He reached over the shelf and grabbed the suit from T & # 39; Challa. He told his mother to get it and threw it in the basket. And it was something that was so, so rewarding … This kid felt powerful dressing like an African superhero. "

Nate Moore, producer of the movie Marvel Studios, told THR the resounding success of Black Panther Has society taken a close look at its legendary library of overpowering characters to find more heroes who will have significant cultural resonance.

"It's definitely a factor," Moore said. "I think representation is important, and I think that even within Marvel, we did not know how important it would be to do it before the release of Black Panther, and you can see the kids finally feeling represented. truth is that there are groups that feel underrepresented, and there are stories to tell in all these groups, all these subcultures, which are also very relevant to everyone.

"I honestly think we have a responsibility as storytellers and the public wants it," said Moore. "We're late, the audience is willing to accept many things that people traditionally say are not, and I think for us it's a good idea, as storytellers, to tell these stories."

Hollywood's growing appetite for diversified representation is also reflected in the awards presented to Green paper, celebrating an improbable friendship in real life between a classical pianist (Mahershala Ali) and a rough bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) in the Great South of the 1960s, who garnered awards from his actors and his screenwriting team, which included director Peter Farrelly.

"I knew it sounded a lot today, but it's not something we focused on," Farrelly said. THR. "I was not trying to make a movie of messages, I think if you focus on a movie of messages, you lose your way, the message does not go in. I remember seeing the movie the first time and realized: "Wow, there's a big message here, but it's sort of the result of that relationship."

Yalitza Aparicio, a teacher who became an actress (Roma) as a new Hollywood actress, John David Washington (BlackKklansman) as a Hollywood Breakout actress, Amandla Stenberg (Hate U Give) as a Belgian actress and director, Hollywood, Felix van Groeningen (Handsome boy) as director of the Hollywood breakthrough.

The political will of the director Damien Chazelle, who had collected the Hollywood Director Award for his biopic Neil Armstrong, had aroused a strong desire for optimism among the politics of the real world of the moment that permeated the debates. First man, which focused on the efforts of Armstrong and his wife to go forward after the death of their young daughter, ultimately culminating in her first human steps on the surface of the moon.

"In this climate, their history gives me a little hope, because it reminds me that all of us ordinary human beings, imperfect and fallible, we can, when pushed, be capable of everything and nothing", said Chazelle, who stated that it's initially denied the project until he discovered the tragic past of Armstrong. "It's something I've been trying to learn, it was a great honor to be able to tell a story about it, I want to thank the producers for not accepting the answer from me … and most of all, I want to thank the families of astronauts for what they did, for their perseverance and for their sacrifice. "

In addition to the steady stream of Awkwafina liners, Anne Hathaway injected a much appreciated dose of levity into the ceremony while paying tribute to her. Wretched co-star Jackman, winner of the Hollywood Actor Award for his role as scandalous presidential candidate, Gary Hart The front runner.

Hathaway is mocked by Jackman's reputation: "I've already seen Hugh Jackman, the nicest guy in Hollywood, losing his shit!" But, in Hathaway's narrative, Jackman's weak point is simply a recognition of the lack of rigor of the many rigorous demands of making their film. Hugh took a sharp, jagged breath, stared at mine and said, "Annie, that's a lot. That's a lot, "she quotes, citing in a tight grip the Australian accent focus of the actor." That's all. It's the worst behavior I've ever seen. "

"Annie, you make me look so boring," laughed Jackman on stage.

On the red carpet before the ceremony, Jackman said THR this The front runner tested him unexpectedly. "I had never played in the life of someone who, I already knew, was going to see the film," he said. "Someone who I call a friend and who is super intelligent.Who he is, is a different type of character that I have played, very different from what I am as a person. It was really a stretch in every respect. "

Showing the film to Hart was a nerve-wracking experience, he admitted. "I was very nervous.It is a gentleman, so it was super compliment about Vera. [Farmiga’s] performance [as Hart’s wife, Lee]. He often says that Lee is the strongest woman he's ever met, that's his wife. And he said other things. If you have seen the movie, it's a very private person. I feel that I betray him if I said all that he said to me! "

At the heart of his series of personal thanks when accepting the Hollywood Supporting Actor Award for his turn Handsome boy, Chalamet was suddenly caught in a laugh after thanking one of the film's producers, Brad Pitt, moved by his casualness in recognizing a great Hollywood superstar.

Harvest the Hollywood Actress Award for his turn in the wind Wife, Close noted that the British Jonathan Pryce had joined the cast as his wife because "there was no American actor who wanted to be in a movie called Wife."But she was delighted by the diversity of her honored colleagues.

"The reason I'm so passionate about what we all do in this room is that in this connected world, the stories we tell go straight into our collective nervous system," said Close. "It gives us a lot of power, humans die without ties, and it gives me such hope of being here tonight, seeing the films that are shot, the artistry, the humanity, the stories that are told, the diversity that stories represent, after my arrival here, the feeling that we are going to save ourselves with the stories we choose to tell. "

A tear-eyed Kidman became visibly moved by accepting her Hollywood Career Achievement Award for her admiration. Big little lies co-star Shailene Woodley, and recognized the acting opportunities that she had enjoyed in two of the films she's showing this year, Boy cleared and Destructive, in which she plays two otherwise very different women who share the feeling of trying to correct the mistakes they made as mothers, which is painfully true to her ", because I made mistakes as that mother's way to try to heal them and create a better life for my children. "

"I am able to, at the moment, give the floor to complicated women, to make them see, to make them heard, to make them understand," Kidman told the audience. "And I'm also able to support female directors and crews … so I'm extremely grateful for the career that you've offered me to the Hollywood community, you've allowed me to take risks, you I dropped you, you took me back, you gave me a second, a third and a fourth chance, I am very grateful for that, and I will always give back to this community, and to the industry, and to my job. "