Two Golden Globes voters resigned in protests from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association over the organization’s lack of progress in addressing alleged racism and sexism within the institution.
According to the LA Times, Diederik van Hoogstraten from the Netherlands and Wenting Xu from China sent a letter of resignation to the HFPA’s leadership on Thursday.
The two called the HFPA “toxic” and criticized the organization’s efforts to redress systemic failures as “window-dressing.”
“Insulation, silence, fear of retribution, self-dealing, corruption and verbal abuse are just a few ways to describe the current culture,” wrote Hoogstraten and Xu in their letter of resignation.
In May, NBC decided not to broadcast the 2022 Golden Globes awards show following a LA Times investigation that revealed the tax-exempt HFPA “regularly issues substantial payments to its own members in ways that some experts say could run afoul of Internal Revenue Service guidelines.”
“The majority of the membership resists transformative change, despite our lawyers and spokespersons suggesting otherwise publicly,” write Hoogstraten and Xu. “Internal opposition to the status quo has been stifled, and critical voices such as ours have largely been ignored.”
Deadline reported that the HFPA issued its own statement on Thursday evening, in which the organization accuses Hoogstraten and Xu of trying to “sow division and doubt” while operating with “their own agendas.”
The statement continued, “This is a crucial time for our organization, and we stand ready to collaborate with our members and outside groups to make this change a reality.”
Last month, the HFPA released an updated code of professional and ethical conduct. It hopes to implement the changes by August.