‘La La Land’ Sets Record for Golden Globes With Seven Awards

(Bloomberg) -- “La La Land,” a musical tale of two up-and-coming entertainers struggling to succeed with their careers and with each other under the glare of Hollywood, dominated the Golden Globe awards, winning best picture and setting a record for the annual ceremony.

The film from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. captured the statuette for best motion picture, musical or comedy, at the ceremony Sunday in Beverly Hills, California, carried on NBC and hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Ryan Gosling won for his role as the jazz pianist Sebastian, while Emma Stone grabbed the Golden Globe for her portrayal of the young actress Mia. The picture also drew honors for director Damien Chazelle and for its musical numbers.

With its seven awards, “La La Land” vaulted past previous Golden Globe record holders that include “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Midnight Express” with six awards each. The recognition will boost the profile of Lions Gate with Hollywood’s creative community and could help the studio vie next month for only its second-ever best-picture Oscar -- at a time when musicals are out of fashion.

The win for “La La Land” “ensures it has a good run at the Oscars,” said Erik Davis, managing editor at Fandango.com, the ticketing and industry website. “It’s a film about dreamers, Hollywood and the L.A. experience, and that speaks to that audience.”

The sweep by “La La Land” overshadowed some notable achievements, including for “Moonlight,” the winner of best film drama, and a big night for diversity in Hollywood, with several awards going to black actors or shows about people of color.

‘Moonlight’

“Moonlight,” distributed by A24, is a coming of age tale about Chiron, a young black man who struggles through adolescence with a crack addicted mother Paula, played by Naomie Harris. Bullied at school, he is taken under the wing of Juan, a drug dealer played by Mahershala Ali, and his girlfriend Theresa.

While the industry and its awards have been criticized in the past for their lack of diversity, the Golden Globe nominations this year included stories about an Indian boy lost in Calcutta, a gay youth growing up in Miami and an interracial couple fighting racist anti-marriage laws in 1960s Virginia.

Tracee Ellis Ross won best actress for her starring role in the ABC comedy “Black-ish” and the Donald Glover-created FX show “Atlanta,” about that city’s rap scene, was crowned best comedy series, with Glover getting the acting award. Viola Davis won her supporting role as the matriarch in “Fences,” Denzel Washington’s film about a black father trying to raise his family in the 1950s.

“The tone of this awards season has already changed because there were so many film and TV shows that were nominated that featured actors of color” Davis said. “The audience demand is so high, that we are only going to see more diversity.”

Big Winner

Among the studios, Lions Gate was the standout. Its nearest competitor in the awards tally was 21st Century Fox Inc. and its FX channel, which garnered four awards, including two for “The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and “Atlanta.”

“The success of critically acclaimed ‘La La Land’ could restore confidence in management’s ability to source, create and produce movies,” Amy Yong, an analyst at Macquarie Capital USA Inc., said Monday in a note to investors. She has an outperform rating on the stock.

Class A shares of Lions Gate fell 0.4 percent to $27.44 at 11:11 a.m. in New York. The stock had lost 9.3 percent in the past year through Jan. 6.

The Globes, handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are the most high-profile film honors before the Oscars in February. Awards season gives studios an opportunity to promote edgier, arty films, many of which are released late in the year and still playing in theaters. This year’s 10 Golden Globe film nominees, in drama and comedy, included just one true blockbuster, the 20th Century Fox superhero picture “Deadpool.”

The show attracted an audience of 20 million viewers in the U.S., up 8.1 percent from 18.5 million a year earlier, according to Nielsen data released by NBC.

Political Comments

For many in Hollywood, Donald Trump’s election as president cast a shadow over the events, leading to comical remarks from some entertainers and more critical commentary from others.

Fallon called the Golden Globes, which are awarded by foreign journalists, “one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote,” a reference to Trump’s loss in the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Meryl Streep, receiving the Cecile B. DeMille award, recalled Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter and described it as one performance this year that “stunned” her.

“I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie,” Streep said. “When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.”

Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., two of the biggest contenders from the digital world, each left with two awards. Casey Affleck won for his leading role in Amazon’s “Manchester by the Sea” and Billy Bob Thornton won for his role in Amazon’s “Goliath.” Company founder Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos was in the audience. The Netflix series “The Crown” won for best TV drama, a first for the company, and best actress for Claire Foy in the title role.

Winners List

Best Motion Picture -- Drama
“Moonlight,” A24

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
“La La Land,” Lions Gate

Best Actor -- Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land,” Lions Gate

Best Actor -- Drama
Casey Affleck “Manchester by the Sea,” Amazon.com

Best Actress -- Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Emma Stone, “La La Land,” Lions Gate

Best Actress -- Motion Picture Drama
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle,” Sony Pictures

Best Director -- Motion Picture
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land,” Lions Gate

Best Supporting Actress -- Motion Picture
Viola Davis, “Fences,” Paramount

Best Supporting Actor -- Motion Picture
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, “Nocturnal Animals,” NBCUniversal

Best Motion Picture -- Animated
“Zootopia,” Disney

Best Motion Picture -- Foreign Language
“Elle,” Sony Pictures

Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land,” Lions Gate

Best Original Score -- Motion Picture
Justin Hurwitz, “La La Land,” Lions Gate

Best Original Song -- Motion Picture
“City of Stars,” “La La Land,” Lions Gate

Best TV Series, Drama
“The Crown,” Netflix

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
“People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Fox (FX)

Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy
“Atlanta,” Fox (FX) 

Best Actor -- TV Series, Drama
Billy Bob Thornton, Goliath, Amazon.com

Best Actor -- Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
Tom Hiddleston, “The Night Manager,” AMC Studios

Best Actor -- TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Donald Glover, “Atlanta,” Fox (FX)

Best Actress, TV Series, Drama
Claire Foy, “The Crown,” Netflix

Best Actress -- Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
Sarah Paulson, “The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” Fox (FX)

Best Actress -- TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Tracee Ellis Ross, “Black-ish,” Disney (ABC)

Best Supporting Actress -- TV Series, Limited Series, TV Movie
Olivia Colman, “The Night Manager,” AMC Studios

Best Supporting Actor -- TV Series/Limited Series/TV Movie
Hugh Laurie, “The Night Manager,” AMC Studios

To contact the reporter on this story: Anousha Sakoui in Los Angeles at asakoui@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum, Sam Nagarajan