Lionsgate is golden with ‘La La Land’ at Globes
Studio nabs 7 awards for its retro-musical; FX shines in the TV categories.
The Golden Globe Awards looked past the big Hollywood studios Sunday to lavish most of its attention on Lionsgate, the minimajor whose crowd-pleasing retro-musical “La La Land” took home seven statuettes, the most of any motion picture for the year. The independent distributor A24 also scored with a surprise win for “Moonlight,” a critical darling that won for best dramatic film.
In the television categories, FX was the big winner for the evening, with two awards each for its miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and freshman comedy series “Atlanta.”
Netflix also scored big with “The Crown,” which won for best dramatic series and lead actress Claire Foy, while AMC’s series “The Night Manager” won three acting awards.
In the feature film categories, the only major studio to take home multiple awards was Sony, which won two statuettes for the French film “Elle,” released by its Sony Pictures Classics division. The psychological thriller, directed by Paul Verhoeven, won for foreign film and lead dramatic actress Isabelle Huppert.
Disney won one award for “Zootopia,” for animated film. Also taking one award each was Paramount, for supporting actress Viola Davis in “Fences”; Universal,
for supporting actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson in “Nocturnal Animals,” which was released by Focus Features; and Amazon, for lead dramatic actor Casey Affleck in “Manchester by the Sea.”
Amazon scored five nominations for “Manchester,” the first film in its growing slate of theatrical releases to be a major Hollywood awards contender.
Lionsgate, based in Santa Monica, has had a notable year with “La La Land,” which has so far grossed $51.7 million domestically as the studio has gradually expanded its release since it opened in December. The movie, which highlighted a number of vintage locations in Los Angeles, won for best comedic or musical film, as well as for its lead actors, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Writer-director Damien Chazelle won two awards, while the soundtrack also won two awards.
“La La Land” is set to expand this weekend to more than 100 Imax screens as part of its nationwide expansion to 1,800 to 2,000 theaters in the U.S., up from about 1,500 theaters last weekend. The movie opened in just five theaters in December before widening its national footprint.
A24, the New York indie banner founded four years ago, has found critical success with “Moonlight,” an understated drama about a gay black man’s coming of age that has accumulated numerous critics prizes and has so far grossed $13.3 million in limited release.