Oscar nominations: Social Network earns 8 nods
Oscar nominations are in, and the Social Network, a sort-of-kind-of-true movie about the founding of Facebook, has earned eight of them, including best film and best adapted screenplay. Among the bevy of Social Network-related Oscar nominees are Jesse Eisenberg, who played Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and David Fincher, who got the nod for best director. So all in all, a pretty good day for nerds, and the movie-goers that love them.
Reviewing The Social Network back in October, our critic, Peter Rainer, argued that the movie was "so topical it transcends mere movieness... 'The Social Network' is a warts-and-all celebration of visionary capitalism and of the moxie required to realize the vision. Mark [Zuckerberg] is both the unlikeliest and likeliest of heroes – or, more precisely, antiheroes – for our time. He's a wolf in geek's clothing."
The Social Network went on to earn a respectable $23 million in its first box office weekend – by comparison, "The Dark Knight" earned about $155.3 million in its first weekend – and to lap up a range of critical plaudits. Earlier this month, the film won four Golden Globe awards, including prizes for best film, best director, and best screenplay.
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Golden Globe wins, of course, are no guarantee that the Social Network will win big at the Oscars, but all those trophies were certainly good news for Fincher and crew.
In the meantime, what does Facebook think about all the Golden Globes and Oscar nominations noise? Well, not that much, it turns out. "We've said all we're going to say about the movie and the books," a Facebook rep told the Hollywood Reporter today. "We've moved on from this discussion, and we think others have, too." Noted.
