The Hollywood Foreign Press Association added 21 members to its roster. This represents a 20% increase in total membership.
48% are women and 24% are Black. 24% are Asian. 29% are Latinx. 19% of the new members come from Middle Eastern/North African countries. This year, the organization was criticized for not having enough Black members.
These members will have instant voting rights for Golden Globes and can immediately join the HFPA Committees.
“We are thrilled to welcome these new members into our family,” HFPA President Helen Hoehne said. “We are building a new organization, one that is not focused on fulfilling quotas, but instead has diversity and inclusion at its core, has ethical conduct as the norm, and has people of color involved in every aspect of the Association — from membership to executive leadership. That is how we’re growing an inclusive environment, and for us to make this much progress in six months is a testament to our membership and our dedication to building something better.”
In the future, applicants will be supported by the organization if they are not accepted this calendar year. This will allow them to have all the necessary materials if they wish to reapply in 2022.
Earlier this month, the HFPA chose three external advisers, Shaka McGlotten, Santiago Pozo and Paula Williams Madison, to help select the group tasked with reviewing new member applications. A week earlier, Sharlette Hambrick and Dr. Joanna Dodd Massey were appointed independent directors to the HFPA board. The HFPA is continuing to search for a CEO.
In the past month, the HFPA elected a president and named three outside members to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is comprised of 2/3 of women (and 1/3 of people of color). They have also been in communications with studios around the industry and started the process of meeting Hollywood publicists, an insider said.
“Most, if not all of our members have spent countless hours over the past several months dedicating themselves to reform – from DEI training, to serving on committees to find new members, to representing the organization in meetings with key partners,”Hoehne spoke. “It’s clear that they love this organization, they love this industry and wanted to put in the work, reshaping our entire Association in a remarkably short amount of time.”
For the complete list of new members, see below.
• Raffi Boghosian, Al Arabiya
• Kelley Carter, ESPN (Global)
• David Caspi, Israel Hayom
• Yong Chavez, ABS-CBN
• Andrés Correa Guatarasma, El Universal
• Earl Gibson III, Associated Press
• Eun Seon Ha, KOFIC
• Hamdy Howaida, El Akhbar
• Itsuko Hirai, Movie Walker Press
• K.J. Matthews, DW-TV
• Juan Navarro, Televisa
• Jânio Carlos Vieira Nazareth, Cinépop
• Ruben Peralta-Rigaud, SensaCine
• Gerardo Prat, ¡HOLA! TV
• Kimberly Reyes, Film Ireland
• Mico Saad, TeN TV
• Asel Sherniyazova, AKIpress News Agency
• Gabriel Silva Lamboglia, El País
• Miriam Spritzer, L’Officiel Brasil
• Mario Pacheco Székely, El Universal
• Yuko Yoshikawa, Cinema Today