Cinema is changing and so are the movie moguls

It’s been the strangest of years in the world of cinema with screens closed, some big movies transferring straight to streaming networks and all manner of industry conventions being overturned.
Seldom has that change been indicated more graphically than at last night’s Golden Globes.
It is normally a red-carpet event which invites almost forensic analysis and often pointedly unkind comments about what the participants choose to wear.
However last night found British actor John Boyega accepted an award for his work in Steve McQueen's BBC film series Small Axe in his trackie bottoms.
OK so that’s not quite as drastic as it sounds. Boyega was accepting the prize for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series from his home and he was making a joke of it.
But there is a serious point in what I am saying. Under Covid travel restrictions big awards shows like ‘the Globes’ are seeing more and more winners who simply can’t be there. Things are changing.
The important thing of cours is the quality of the work and that seems to be holding up just fine.  MacQueen’s Small Axe project traced the origins of the racial tensions that to this day trouble inner city London. This was highlighted in the recent Tutu Foundation UK report revealing long-term institutional racism at the Westway Trust. In the Small Axe film Red, White and Blue John Boyega starred as Leroy Logan, a black police officer trying to change the force from within.
The big movie winners also dealt with social problems. They were were Nomadland, which stars Frances McDormand as a homeless woman in the American West and Borat Subsequent Movie film which finds Sacha Baron Cohen using humour to challenge prejudice and stupidity. It’s a world away from the Golden Age of Hollywood and a sign perhaps that even in the weird artificial world of movie-land the bosses are finally engaging with some uncomfortable realities.