The Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television. The formal ceremony and dinner at which the awards are presented is a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year with the Academy Awards.
The 1st Golden Globe Awards were held in January 1944 at the 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles. The 66th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 2008, were presented on January 11, 2009 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, telecast to more than 150 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars and the Grammy Awards. Unlike the Oscars, the Grammys and the Emmy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards is one of two major Hollywood awards ceremonies, the other being the Screen Actors Guild Awards, that does not have a regular host; there is a different presenter every year, who introduces the ceremony at the beginning of the broadcast.