Facebook film tipped as Oscars nods unveiled

LOS ANGELES: Facebook movie "The Social Network" hopes to make more friends Tuesday when this year's Oscar nominations are to be announced, as the climax to Hollywood's annual awards season looms.

But rivals vying for Academy Awards glory include British historical drama "The King's Speech," which many say could come good at the Oscars despite its disappointing Golden Globes showing earlier this month.

Movies also likely in the running for Oscars awards next month include Globes winners "Black Swan" and "The Fighter," lesbian parenting film "The Kids are Alright" and the Coen brothers' update of the Western classic "True Grit."

Hollywood watchers claim one of the safest Oscar bets is Colin Firth for best actor as the stammering King George VI, while Natalie Portman is tipped for best actress for her role in ballet-themed drama "Black Swan."

Jeff Bridges also has a buzz behind him for what would be his second Oscar in a row for "True Grit," while actress tips include Julianne Moore and Annette Bening from "The Kids Are All Right," or Nicole Kidman for "Rabbit Hole."

The best director shortlist is expected to include "Social Network" director David Fincher, Tom Hooper for "The King's Speech" and Christopher Nolan for thriller "Inception."

The nominations for the Oscars, by far the most prestigious of Tinseltown's awards season, will be unveiled at 5:30 am (1330 GMT) on Tuesday, launching the final straight toward the February 27 Academy Awards show.

"The Social Network" grabbed four Golden Globes, including Best Picture, on January 17, in what is traditionally seen as an indicator of success at the Academy Awards.

The Facebook movie, about how Mark Zuckerberg founded the social networking site, also won best director Globe for Fincher as well as best screenplay and best score.

"The King's Speech" scored only one Globe -- best actor for Firth -- while there were two for boxing movie "The Fighter" and one for "Black Swan," with Portman for best actress.

But industry observers note that the British royal movie could do better at the Oscars because it is better suited to the tastes of the 6,000-plus members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The British movie, about King George VI's battle with a stammer, also got a small boost over the weekend when it won best picture award at the Producers Guild of America awards.

The Los Angeles Times noted that, for the past two decades, the Producers Guild of America results have correctly forecast the Oscar best picture 13 times.

"There's a good chance that 'The King's Speech' will score the most Oscar bids," said the newspaper's awards-watching correspondent, predicting as many as 11 nods for the British movie.

The producers' show was the latest in a string of ceremonies that make up the annual awards season. Others still to come include the Screen Actors Guild prizes on January 30.

But for insiders, the Oscars are the multi-billion-dollar industry's real deal, and much of Hollywood will therefore be up early Tuesday for the pre-dawn nominations announcement.

On the eve of the Oscars nominations, nominees for Hollywood's Oscars spoof the Razzies were revealed Monday, with the "Sex and the City" sequel and the final installment of teen vampire series "Twilight" top of the flops.

Jennifer Aniston, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Pattinson, Miley Cyrus and Barbra Streisand were also nominated by the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, which organizes the annual salute to the worst of the worst.

'The Social Network' wins best picture Golden Globe

BEVERLY HILLS: "The Social Network" won the best picture award at the Golden Globes on Sunday, in a good night for the Facebook movie at the Hollywood awards show.

The film, about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, won in four of the six categories for which it was nominated, including best director for David Fincher.

The blockbuster movie had already picked up best screenplay and best score prizes at the Globes, traditionally seen as a pointer to success at the more prestigious Oscars show next month.

As the film's cast and executives took to the stage their thankyous included one for Zuckerberg, whose life served as "a metaphor for communication and the way we relate to each other".

"The Social Network" had also been nominated for best actor for Jesse Eisenberg and best supporting actor for Andrew Garfield at the Beverly Hills show.

Its four out of six wins compared with a disappointing sole win for British historical drama "The King's Speech," which had been the frontrunner with nods in seven categories.

The Social Network

Movie stars require a quality of aggression — at least if audiences are going to feel wired to their every move. In films like The Squid and the Whale (2005) and Adventureland (2009), Jesse Eisenberg, his head lowered and jutting like a faithful dog's, has played anxiously fast-talking, insecure nice guys, and he has often been marvelous. Yet he's staked out the kind of youth-neurotic terrain that, by definition, can never be electrifying. In The Social Network, the thrillingly intense, enjoyable, and resonant new drama about the founding of Facebook, Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg, the brilliant, ruthless Harvard student who rejiggered the spirit of the Internet age. From the opening moments, the actor grips you with the armored force of his verbal attack.

We're in a dark bar in Cambridge, Mass., where Zuckerberg, having a beer with his girlfriend (Rooney Mara), jabbers on about his thwarted desire to join one of Harvard's elite final clubs. Eisenberg holds his head still, and every line tumbles out as if he'd shot it from his brain like a bullet. He's not just talking, he's working off his anger on whoever will listen — in this case, the girlfriend who's about to dump him and call him an ''a--hole.''

In response, Zuckerberg stalks across campus and posts a nasty blog item about her, proving her characterization a bull's-eye. Then he goes further, cobbling together a website called Facemash that invites students to survey paired photographs of coeds and say which one they think is hotter. It's an egregious idea — and a huge hit. With his close-cropped curls and pursed lips that make him look like a Jewish-preppy John Lydon, Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg as an egomaniacal whiz-kid creep who's the smartest dude in any situation because he's outside it and inside it at the same time. The actor takes on a whole new aspect — he's a geek programmed for revenge. And he's mesmerizing.


It's hard to recall the last serious movie built around a character who was this much of an intellectual scoundrel. Yet the creators of The Social Network — screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), whose dialogue here is so sharp it could slice ribbons, and director David Fincher (Zodiac) — have something tricky and emotionally complex up their sleeves. The story of how Zuckerberg put Facebook together, one Silicon Valley bong bash and venture-capitalist powwow at a time, is intercut with a pair of deposition hearings in which he faces down the two parties he ostensibly screwed over. The Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler (both played by Armie Hammer, with body-doubling by Josh Pence), are super-WASP Harvard crew champions who accuse Zuckerberg of ripping off their idea for a website that will allow Harvard students to interface with one another. Then there's Zuckerberg's partner, CFO, and only friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), whom he ultimately leaves out in the cold. The sizzling ethical-dramatic question that drives The Social Network is: Why did Zuckerberg betray these people? Or, in fact, did he really?

Hooked by the desire to belong, but also by his dream of what a game changer Facebook could be, Zuckerberg does whatever it takes to push his vision forward. He's a cad, but in his devious techno-entrepreneurial way he's also an idealist, driven by a force greater than greed. He's an Asperger's version of Citizen Kane, aware of everything around him yet disengaged from it, too. He undercuts the snobbery of the Winklevosses' idea, making it more supple and democratic even as he snatches it from under their blue-blood noses.

The Social Network has everything you want in a thriller for the brain: huge doses of ego and duplicity, corporate backstabbing, and some very layered performances. Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker, the Napster cofounder who helped launch Facebook, as an ultra-shrewd party boy who encourages Zuckerberg to see that what looks illegal in the Internet era may in fact be the rules of the future. As the ingenuous Eduardo, whose only crime is thinking small (which to Zuckerberg is the biggest crime of all), Andrew Garfield has a great moment where he confronts his ex-comrade. It's the tongue-lashing we've been waiting for, yet the power of The Social Network is that Zuckerberg is a weasel with a mission that can never be dismissed. The movie suggests that he may have built his ambivalence about human connection into Facebook's very DNA. That's what makes him a jerk-hero for our time.