The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is an organization

Organization

An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...

 composed of working journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

s who cover the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film industry

Film industry

The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...

 for a variety of outlets, including newspapers and magazines in Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Today, the 90 members of the HFPA represent at least 55 countries and have a combined readership of more than 250 million. The organization is best known for its annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony held in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 every January.

History

The association was founded in the early 1940s by a group of Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

-based foreign journalists in an attempt to gain more clout with the studios and make it easier to obtain access to stars.

The organization’s first awards presentation for distinguished achievements in the film industry took place in early 1944 with an informal ceremony at 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

. There, Jennifer Jones

Jennifer Jones

Phylis Lee Isley , better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and...

 was awarded Best Actress honors for “The Song of Bernadette,” which also won for Best Film, while Paul Lukas

Paul Lukas

Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...

 took home Best Actor laurels for “Watch on the Rhine.” Awards were presented in the form of scrolls.

The following year members came up with the idea of presenting winners with a golden globe encircled with a strip of motion picture film, and mounted on a pedestal.

In 1950, differing philosophies among members created a schism within the organization, resulting in a split into two separate groups – The Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association and the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood. The separation ended in 1955 when the journalists reunited under the collective title “The Hollywood Foreign Press Association” with firm guidelines and requirements for membership.

In 1955, the Golden Globes began honoring achievements in television as well as in film. The first honorees in the Best Television Show category that year were “Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...

,” “Lucy & Desi,” “The American Comedy” and “Davy Crockett (TV miniseries)

Davy Crockett (TV miniseries)

Davy Crockett is a five part serial which aired on ABC in one-hour episodes on the Disneyland series. The series stars Fess Parker as real-life frontiersman Davy Crockett and Buddy Ebsen as his fictional best friend, George Russel....

.”

Today, the Golden Globes recognize achievements in 25 categories: 14 in motion pictures, and 11 in television.

HFPA Membership

Membership meetings are held monthly, and the officers and directors are elected annually. A maximum of five journalists are admitted to the organization each year. All members are accredited by the Motion Picture Association of America and must submit clippings of their work every year to justify their membership.

Requirements for membership include residence in Southern California and a minimum of four published articles per year. The HFPA does not release a list of acceptable publications for those articles, but they are not restricted to popular, mainstream ones.