The 18th Hollywood Film Awards will mark the first time the pre-season awards bonanza's history airs for public viewing. Because the world needs another televised awards show. They do! Someone does.
With the ceremony's promotion comes a host with a personality worthy of the screen: Queen Latifah. The Oscar-nominated actress, musician and talk show host will will play ringleader to the event, which CBS will air in mid-November.
In years past, the Hollywood Film Awards were known for being a bit of a joke, handing out awards to buzzy performances and films rather than waiting to actually see which films deserve the accolades. Bumping the show a month (last year's went down on October 18) addresses those criticisms, but there's still a sense that it's all pomp and circumstance without any substance, a good a reason as any to throw down a red carpet and let the A-listers parade.
What matters is that CBS is taking it seriously. Despite the Hollywood Film Awards leaking their winners to news outlets in the weeks before the ceremonies, the network will still give the show a half hour of red carpet coverage, two hours for the awards, and then an hour-long post show hosted by “CBS This Morning's” Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell. There will be chatter.
If you're a casual channel surfer who stumbles upon the Hollywood Film Awards one Friday night, it might be a good time. If you're following the awards game at all, they can be downright infuriating. Our own Gregory Ellwood explained in a past Hollywood Film Awards debriefing:
The brainchild of Carlos de Abreu, Hollywood Film Awards has always been about trying to be relevant in the Oscar race. Most recently, the show was associated with the Hollywood Film Festival to give itself more legitimacy like the Palm Springs or Santa Barbara Festivals. It didn't really work and now the two events are disassociated from each other. What Mr. Rose, Ms. King and Ms. O'Donnell might want to research — before their reputations become sullied — is that these “awards” are supposedly picked by an “Advisory and Selection team of film industry insiders and executives.” Before this year that would be code for “each studio tells us who they can bring and who they would prefer wins each award and we try and balance it all out so everyone is happy.” It's pretty much been the “who can we get to show up who is a legitimate contender?” honors.
Hey, at least Queen Latifah will be there to make it funny.
CBS will air the Hollywood Film Awards on Nov. 14