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Hollywood Foreign Press Appoints Ali Sar President After Lorenzo Soria’s Death

Patrick Hipes
·2 min read

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association said Thursday that it has appointed Ali Sar as its new president. He replaces Lorenzo Soria, who died August 7 in the midst of his third nonconsecutive term as president of the international journalists group that organizes the Golden Globes.

Sar has held several positions over 35-year membership in the HFPA. He most recently served as vice president. The native of Istanbul has covered entertainment for publications in Turkey and Argentina and is a special correspondent for English-language The Moscow Times.

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He also spent more than two decades at the Daily News of Los Angeles, where he was managing editor for 10 years, and was an executive with Thomson (now Thomson Reuters) Newspapers’ Southern California group.

“We were shocked by Lorenzo’s untimely passing. We are committed to the vision he had charted for HFPA,” Sar said today in a release announcing the appointment.

The HFPA is the midst of prepping for its 78th Golden Globe Awards, which are now scheduled for February 28, 2021 at the Beverly Hilton in a live ceremony to be hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on NBC. The Globes usually has an early January date on the awards-season calendar, but this year’s kudos run has been suspended by the coronavirus pandemic, forcing most awards shows forward to align with the Oscars’ new date of April 25.

The Argentina-born, Italy-raised Soria was elected HFPA president in June 2019, following stints in the top post from 2003-05 and 2015-17. He also served as chairman of its board before his most recent election as president.

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