Facebook film The Social Network won four Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, including best drama, making it a front-runner in Hollywood’s Oscar race after sweeping several honours from critics and industry groups in recent weeks. Social Network also won the best director award for David Fincher, best screenplay for writer Aaron Sorkin and best musical score, written by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The film recounts the story of the founding of social networking site Facebook, an international phenomenon with 500 million users that was started in a college dormitory by founder, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.
The Facebook founder did not cooperate with the movie’s makers, and the film is a piece of fiction. Nevertheless, producer Scott Rudin and Sorkin pointed out that Zuckerberg’s creation has been a phenomenon that has changed the way the world communicates.
“I want to thank everyone at Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for his willingness to use his life and work as a metaphor for communication and the way we relate to each other.”
Another big Golden Globe winner was The Kids Are All Right, which featured two lesbian parents whose children search for their sperm donor father. Kids also picked up the award for best actress in a film comedy for its star Annette Bening, who portrayed one of the mothers in the film.
British actor Colin Firth was named best actor in a film drama for his portrayal of stuttering King George VI in The King’s Speech, while a pregnant Natalie Portman took home the Golden Globe trophy for best actress in a drama with Black Swan.
Backstage, Firth was asked about his chances for an Oscar in the same role, but all the actor said he could do was get through his big night on Sunday.
Meanwhile, big budget Prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire toppled the three-year run of television’s Mad Men on Sunday, winning the Golden Globe for best TV drama on a night of surprises in TV categories.
Boardwalk Empire star Steve Buscemi won his first Golden Globe for his role as a corrupt politician in the HBO drama, helping the premium cable TV network to the biggest awards haul of the night with four trophies overall.
The big winner in comedy was quirky Fox musical hit Glee, which collected a trio of awards for best TV comedy series, and supporting actor honours for Jane Lynch’s devious cheerleading coach and Chris Colfer’s gay teen student.
Colfer, 20, who was unknown before landing the role of Kurt Hummel in the series about a struggling high school show choir, thanked creator Ryan Murphy in his acceptance speech for “basically being my fairy godmother”.
Backstage, Colfer credited Glee with “making performing arts cool again”.
The success of Glee on Sunday made Fox the second biggest network winner after HBO, with three awards. CBS, FX, Showtime and the Sundance Channel all ended the night with one apiece, while networks ABC and NBC left empty-handed.
The biggest upset came in the TV drama categories. Mad Men — the stylish AMC series set in the 1960s advertising industry that has dominated Hollywood award shows for the past three years — finally lost its crown to Boardwalk Empire.
Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter said the 1930s gangster series was set in a “a period in American history that hasn’t been explored much on film, let alone on TV. It is an irresistible time in history to write about.”