Did the Golden Globes Website Accidentally Reveal the 2015 Best Picture Winners Early?
File this one under a possible oops: If you were checking out the Golden Globes website earlier today, you may have noticed something curious. On the page for the 2014 winners, ‘Selma’ appeared in the place where ‘12 Years a Slave’ once was, and a little while later, ‘Into the Woods’ appeared in place of ‘American Hustle.’ Was this a mistake, or something a little more innocuous? According to the HFPA, it’s definitely the latter.
The Guardian was the first site to pick up on the error earlier today, when ‘Selma’ replaced ‘12 Years a Slave’ in the spot for Best Motion Picture, Drama. Shortly after, the ‘Selma’ photo was removed and replaced with the photo for ‘12 Years a Slave,’ but the ‘Selma’ title remained. Here’s a screenshot, as captured by the Guardian:
And a little while after that, the same thing occurred with the spot for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. Previously occupied by 2014 winner ‘American Hustle,’ the spot was then inhabited by ‘Into the Woods.’ So, did the Golden Globes make a mistake and announce the Best Motion Picture winners too early?
According to the HFPA, it was a simple technical error. A spokesperson had this to offer when questioned by Deadline:
While testing the official website of the Golden Globe Awards for Sunday’s ceremony, Bluefin inadvertently took the test live. We randomly selected two film titles with no knowledge of the category winners. We are solely responsible for the error.
Another thing to take into consideration is that, according to HFPA rules and regulations, only the people at Ernst & Young who officially tally the votes know the results prior to the telecast. The winners are entirely unknown until the moment the envelope is opened and the winners’ names are announced by the presenter for each category. So while it’s entirely likely that ‘Selma’ and ‘Into the Woods’ could take home statues for Best Motion Picture, we (and they) won’t know for sure until Sunday night’s telecast.