‘La La Land’ waltzes to huge victory at Golden Globes

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- Whimsical modern-day musical “La La Land” pirouetted its way into major Oscars contention Sunday as it swept the board at the Golden Globes, the glitziest party of the showbiz year.

Damien Chazelle’s nostalgic tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals picked up all seven of the statuettes for which it was nominated -- giving the film momentum as it launches its campaign for next month’s Academy Awards.

The film’s influence was felt from the opening moments of the three-hour ceremony -- host Jimmy Fallon and a slew of stars got the bash underway with a parody of some of the iconic scenes from the movie, which is set in Los Angeles.

“This is a film for dreamers,” said Emma Stone, who took home the prize for best actress in a musical/comedy for her role as aspiring actress Mia.

“I think that hope and creativity are two of the most important things in the world. And that’s what this movie is about.”

Her co-star Ryan Gosling -- who plays jazz pianist Sebastian -- won best actor honors, while Chazelle took home prizes for best director and screenplay.
 

It earned awards for best original score award and best song for “City of Stars” shortly after the glitzy ceremony began -- setting the tone for a record-breaking night.

Prior to Sunday, the record for the most Globes was shared by the 1975 release “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and the 1978 movie “Midnight Express,” with six wins apiece.

Kenneth Lonergan‘s unflinching “Manchester by the Sea” earned a Globe for Casey Affleck as best actor in a drama, but the film lost out to Barry Jenkins’s coming-of-age movie “Moonlight” for best drama.

Affleck, who was the heavy favorite in his category, paid tribute to his director.

“I don‘t have enough time to say what I want to say about Kenny. So suffice it to say I love you, you’re beautiful, you‘re a treasure to all of us who like movies and work in movies,” he said.

Best drama was the only award for “Moonlight,” a disappointing haul considering it had six nominations, including for the director and cast members Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali.

There was also a shock in the best actress in a drama category, where Natalie Portman was expected to pick up the award for her intense turn as Jackie Kennedy in “Jackie.”

Instead, the award went to Isabelle Huppert for French rape-revenge tale “Elle.”

In another surprise, “Elle” captured the best foreign language film award over the heavily favored German-Austrian dramedy “Toni Erdmann.”

Viola Davis picked up best supporting actress in a film for “Fences,” the screen adaptation of August Wilson’s play.

She hailed “extraordinary leader, great actor, great director” Denzel Washington, her co-star.

“It‘s not every day that Hollywood thinks of translating a play to screen. It doesn’t scream money-maker, you know? But it does scream art. It does scream heart,” she said.

On the television side, FX true crime anthology “The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” took home prizes for best limited series or TV movie, and best actress for Sarah Paulson for her portrayal of prosecutor Marcia Clark.

But AMC crime drama “The Night Manager” swept up three acting prizes, for Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman.

Netflix newcomer “The Crown,” a saga about Britain’s royal family, picked up statuettes for best drama series and best actress for Claire Foy.

Actor Donald Glover -- who is due to star in the next “Star Wars” spin-off film -- picked up the best comedy television series award for “Atlanta,” which he created, and later won a best actor statuette.

The US presidential election was on the minds of those at the Beverly Hilton. Fallon cracked a few jokes, but screen legend Meryl Streep took Donald Trump to task, in an emotional speech as she accepted a lifetime achievement award.