Who Picks The Golden Globe Award Winners? A Closer Look At The Real Voters

Winning a Golden Globe is considered an honor with the annual show recognizing the best in TV and movies. However, unlike other award programs, Golden Globe Award winners are not decided by a group of their own peers.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, also known as HFPA, is a non-profit organization which co-produces the award show and decides which actors and filmmakers walk away with golden statuettes each January. Like the 73 shows before it, Sunday’s 74th annual affair on NBC will see which nominees HFPA’s roughly 90 members decided worthy of a win.

So, just who are these HFPA members? The group is made up of foreign movie and television journalists who are permanently based in Southern California where the Golden Globes is hosted each year. These members “disseminate information about movies and television to the world through their various publications throughout the world,” according to the organization’s site. While these individuals are not entertainers, HFPA members attend hundreds of movie and television screenings each year to prepare for voting.

As for the voting process, it’s done in two phases: nominations and final vote. Nomination ballots are mailed to HFPA members in late November. Members are instructed to pick up to five nominees in each category. There are guidelines for voting, however. For example, one cannot nominate a person who is immediately family or a close relative. After nominations are announced, voters cannot attend any events where nominees are present.

Several days after announcing the nominees in December, HFPA members are mailed the official ballots. They have until early January to send their final ballots Ernst & Young, the accounting firm which secretly tabulates the winners each year. Voters are instructed to notify NBC or the show’s accounting firm is they were influenced to make a vote that is impartial in anyway.

HFPA accepts applications for new members every February-March, but there is a laundry list of restrictions. For example, those who are not accredited by the Motion Picture Association of America need not apply. Valid applications are voted on by the HFPA in May and five applicants are accepted each year for a one-year provisional membership before being granted an active membership, which allows you to vote. A non-refundable initiation fee of $500 is required if you’re accepted.

Tune in to the 2017 Golden Globe Awards Sunday, Jan. 8, at 7 p.m. EST on NBC to see who wins.