Who among the first time Golden Globe Awards nominees will go on to become winners?

When the nominees for the 78^th Golden Globes were announced on February 3, it yielded quite a list of talents who earned citations for the first time.

Below are some of the Globes “newbies” whose names may be called by presenters in the show, which honors excellence in film and television. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are back as hosts of the star-studded show which will broadcast live from Los Angeles and New York.

The first ever bicoastal telecast of the celebrated award ceremony will air live Sunday, February 28, 5 to 8 pm PT/8 to 11 pm ET on NBC (Monday morning, March 1 in Manila).

Andra Day, best actress in a motion picture – for The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Andra, who portrays Billie Holiday, one of the greatest singers of the 20^th century, talked about hearing for the first time the legend’s Strange Fruit, which protests the lynching of blacks.

“I was 11 years old when I was introduced to Billie Holiday. I just remember hearing the song “Sugar” and being confused by her voice. I was so young at the time and all the singers I knew…I was like, this sounds nothing like Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin, what is this? I was just confused by it.”

“But I found myself transfixed. I could not take my ears, eyes, and soul off her.  Then I heard “Strange Fruit” and I knew who I was listening to. But whatever I was listening to, I, at 11, couldn’t fully comprehend it.”

“It is very important and it applies to me directly. And really, her ownership of her voice helped me to own my voice. Her singing “Strange Fruit” helped me to say, okay, if I’m going to sing, even if I’m just talking about my life or things that I’ve been through, I want it to move the needle for people.”

“The goal is for it to inspire people to heal. So she really inspired, she colored and informed a lot of what I do today.”

Tahar Rahim, best actor in a motion picture – drama, for The Mauritanian

The French actor of Algerian descent, who first won acclaim in A Prophet, wanted to go all out in experiencing some of the torture that Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whom he plays, underwent in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Mohamedou was detained for 14 years but he was never officially charged.

“At some point, I could have gone as far as possible but Kevin (Macdonald, director) got worried. He said, ‘Listen, just calm down.  It’s very tough already. I have it on screen.’ ”

“But you get into something and you want to keep going because you’re feeling something. You feel alive – wearing real cuffs, being in a very cold cell, being waterboarded for real and force fed. I needed it so I can convey genuine feelings and emotions to the audience. I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

“As bizarre as it is, the more that you experience it as an actor, the more you want to experience it. Because this is what you want as an actor. What you’re seeking for is to live the moment for real.  It’s a bit strange, I know, but that’s our job.”

Still courtesy of STXfilms

Chloe Zhao, best director and screenplay – motion picture for Nomadland

The immigrant filmmaker, who made history as the first Asian woman to earn Golden Globe best director and screenplay nominations, cited how her film’s theme of rootlessness resonates with her.

“To me, it’s the constant search for the next horizon. That’s very much part of the creation of this country. That’s in the bones of not just how the country is constructed physically but also, in the heart of every American.”

“In my case, on a personal level, it’s the search for self as well.  It’s part of the legacy of the road. We hit the road because maybe whatever that defined who we are is no longer. Whether we lost it in a tragedy or we decided that this no longer who we are, we set out to find ourselves and connect at that level.”

Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

H.E.R., best original song, for “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah

If H.E.R. wins for her soulful song for the film about Black Panther leader Fred Hampton (excellently played by Daniel Kaluuya), she will be the first Filipino-American to triumph in this Globes category. The artist, who sang “America the Beautiful” in the recent Super Bowl, was nominated with Dernst Emile II and Tiara Thomas

The first Fil-Am nominee in this field is Robert Lopez, who was cited thrice, with his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez, for their songs in Frozen, Coco, and Frozen II.

“I was just blown away at how powerful this story was about Fred Hampton. I really wanted to be a part of it… I wanted to capture a lot of the different themes of the movie – this idea of fighting for something and giving people hope, whether in love, in a generation, or injustice. So, ‘Fight for You‘ is really about that.”

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Chadwick Boseman, best actor in a motion picture – drama, for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Chadwick earned his posthumous nomination in the film about Ma Rainey (a compelling Viola Davis), an outspoken entertainer who lived some 30 years before the Civil Rights movement. In an interview for his film, Marshall, Chadwick recounted his early memories of experiencing social injustice.

“I would say my entire life I feel like I have felt that sense, from my parents, brothers, family members.  I am from the South – South Carolina. So for my entire life, I have seen Confederate flags flying from trucks and Confederate flag license plates.”

“I have seen my family members stopped by police for no reason. I saw somebody try to run my mom off the road in a truck.  So it’s always been a thing of, how do you deal with this situation?  And do you respond directly and violently or do you respond peacefully, or do you respond spiritually or consciously?”

“All of those things have always been a question. I would say that it probably happened when I went to Howard (University). There are always going to be protests when you are in a college environment. So while there, there were a number of police shootings.”

“There was a student who was killed by an off-duty cop while we were at Howard. We marched to the Justice Department. That was probably the first time I ran into Al Sharpton in the midst of a protest.  I can’t really name a specific point because it has always been part of my life. Injustice has always been present.”

Vanessa Kirby, best actress in a motion picture – drama for Pieces of a Woman

Vanessa, who played Princess Margaret in The Crown and reprises her White Widow role in Mission: Impossible 7 and 8, on portraying a woman trying to cope with losing her baby during a home birth delivery:

“I haven’t given birth.  It was such an honor to even imagine it and to suddenly feel connected to women who have done it for centuries. I watched a woman give birth.  That was a total privilege.”

“I felt that every single day of filming this movie, in connecting to the feelings that this woman felt and to the many women I spoke to, I have felt their loss. I felt closer to people in general and definitely to myself so I feel changed from it.”

Courtesy of Netflix

Shira Haas, best actress in a limited series, anthology series a motion picture made for TV, for Unorthodox

The Israeli actress commented on her portrayal of Esty, a woman who escapes from her oppressive religious community in New York, loosely based on the memoir of Deborah Feldman.

“Every society has something with women, right? There’s a lot to go through anywhere, religious or not. Every community is very different so in my research for the part, I was really surprised with a lot of things.”

“For example, the shaving scene is a ritual that’s not really happening in most of the religious societies. So that’s something that I was pretty shocked about not only because I had to do it. But also because it’s still happening.”

“The biggest role for women, specifically in this (ultra-orthodox) community but also religions in general is having babies, right? That’s why Esty is having so much trouble because her mind and her body are not communicating.”

“It was hard for me sometimes to read the script. But you need to come not judging the character at all, to understand the character, to understand where it comes from, to understand why it’s still like that. I had a lot of questions, which the series obviously touched. It was really important to me to come with a lot of love for the character.”

Still courtesy of Netflix

Leslie Odom, Jr., best supporting actor, and best original song “Speak Now” (he composed with Sam Ashworth) – motion picture for One Night in Miami

In Regina King’s feature directing debut, she imagines what transpired when Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) met in a hotel room in February 1964 to celebrate Ali’s win over Sonny Liston.

Leslie, the Hamilton star who plays the legendary late singer Sam, who battled demons, discussed what he does with his own.

“I don’t fight those demons. You make room for them, and you let them in. It’s the other side of the coin. This profession is so wonderful and so much fun but there’s another side of it. Not everybody makes it out of this business unscathed.”

“Those hotel rooms at night can be very lonely after a day of shooting after you invite those demons in. Or you don’t invite them in. Sam wrestled with them. I owed him. All four of us, we owed it to these gentlemen to wrestle as much as we could, metaphorically, to wrestle with the same demons.”

“So Kingsley and I had a lot of late night sessions where we would debrief, we’d have wine, just hang outside the hotel room and just bounce things off one another to let it go, to release some of that pressure. But I didn’t fight him.”

Still courtesy of Amazon Studios

– Rappler.com