(“Thank you to” is a phrase often useful for distinguishing entities winners feel obligated to thank — “Thank you to 20th Century Fox,” Rami Malek said in his speech on Sunday night — from those they want to — “I have to thank my mom and my family,” he continued.)

So, who are the oracles who pronounced unequivocally that “Green Book” is either the funniest or most musical film of 2018?

In short: Just some folks.

The H.F.P.A . was born of the chaos of global warfare in 1943 when eight foreign-born journalists living in California banded together to, apparently, gossip privately about celebrities. (The H.F.P.A .’s website is vague: “At first, the members held informal gatherings in private homes.”)

The lives of most of the founders remain obscure. By far the best known, a native Latvian who wrote a lengthy profile of Mussolini’s son-in-law for Esquire in 1937, would go on to publish a National Enquirer article titled “Space Alien Baby Found Alive, Say Russians.” He also reportedly lost an arm at some point between establishing the Golden Globes and his death.

The first awards ceremony was held in 1944 on the lot of the studio that distributed the best picture-winning film ( 20th Century Fox and “The Song of Bernadette,” respectively), and it is this level of integrity that has characterized the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ever since.