The Social Network Wins 3, Loses 5 Oscars


It was a great night for The King’s Speech and Inception at the 83rd Academy Awards on Sunday — and a somewhat more disappointing outcome for their main rival, David Fincher’s The Social Network.

Fincher’s movie, a fictionalized account of the rise of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, still won three Oscars. Writer Aaron Sorkin, also known for West Wing and A Few Good Men, won Best Adapted Screenplay (it was based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires”), while Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor won Best Original Score for the movie’s haunting music. The movie also won an award for Best Film Editing.

But The Social Network had been nominated for eight awards — and had been hotly tipped for Best Picture until The King’s Speech started picking up buzz several months ago. It failed to win for Best Cinematography, Best Actor, Best Director or Best Picture. The King’s Speech took home five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Colin Firth. Chris Nolan’s dream-within-a-dream Inception also won five, including Best Special Effects for its stunning computer-generated imagery.

For The Social Network‘s fans, it will be especially disappointing that the movie won awards for sound, vision and script — but apparently was not better than the sum of those parts. And in what seemed almost like a snub, Sorkin’s acceptance speech was one of them that was cut short by the Academy’s “play them out” music.

Still, for a movie that’s all about a nerd who fights to be popular but fails to fit in, it seems an appropriate outcome.

Do you think The Social Network got snubbed in some categories? Or did the right nominees win?

More About: academy awards, Best Director, Best picture, Movies, oscar, the social network, trending

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Sean Parker Says “The Social Network” Is “Fiction”

Napster founder and Facebook founding president Sean Parker lashed out at the movie The Social Network at a conference in Europe today, calling it “a complete work of fiction.”

As you can see the video above (go to 5:20 for this part), Parker admires the production values of the film, but objects to the way his character was portrayed. He particularly dislikes the scene where he writes a check to Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin:

“The part of the movie that frustrated me is actually the scene at the end where the character played by Justin Timberlake — who happens to have my name — basically writes a check to Eduardo – who I’m also, I consider Eduardo a friend of mine, and I’m one of the few people at Facebook who still interacts with Eduardo – and throws it in his face and has security escort him out of the building. And I mean, that’s just rude. This guy in the movie is a morally reprehensible human being.”

Parker made the remarks in an on-stage interview at the DLD Conference 2011 in Munich, which started today.

In an interview with Mashable three months ago, Zuckerberg wouldn’t say whether he liked the film or not, but thought its audience size was minuscule compared with Facebook’s: “We build products that 500 million people see… If 5 million people see a movie, it doesn’t really matter that much.”

[via YouTube/KiTTGTR]

More About: discussion, DLD Conference 2011, facebook, interview, quote, sean parker, the social network, video

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“The Social Network” Wins Big at Golden Globes


The Social Network was one of the big winners at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, taking home four trophies, including those for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes is often viewed as a predictor for the Academy Awards.

The film, which was nominated for six awards, has had a stellar award season, with director David Fincher, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and lead actor Jesse Eisenberg all being recognized by various organizations, guilds and critics groups. Not bad for a movie most of us wrote-off as a joke back in 2008, eh?

Here is the rundown of nominations/wins that The Social Network received at the Golden Globes:

  • Best Supporting Actor: Andrew Garfield — Lost (Christian Bale won for The Fighter)
  • Best Score: Trent ReznorWon
  • Best Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin — Won
  • Best Actor, Drama: Jesse Eisenberg — Lost (Colin Firth won for The King’s Speech)
  • Best Director: David Fincher — Won
  • Best Picture, DramaWon

For those keeping track, nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced on January 25. We were convinced that The Social Network would be a major contender when we reviewed the film back in September, but after big wins at the Globes, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and receiving honors from the National Board of Review and others, we’ll go on record as saying that nominations are an absolute lock.

Mark Zuckerberg might take issue with how the film portrayed the early years of Facebook, but in truth, the film and its critical and commercial success has only reinforced Facebook’s place in the cultural zeitgeist.

What did you think of the Golden Globe awards? Let us know.

More About: facebook, facebook movie, Film, golden globe awards, golden globes, Movies, the social network

Zuckerberg Talks Privacy, “The Social Network” on “60 Minutes” [VIDEO]


Earlier this evening, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a return appearance on the news program 60 Minutes. Zuckerberg showed off Facebook’s new profile pages and talked about the evolution of the platform and company.

Zuckerberg was first interviewed by 60 Minutes in January of 2008. Since that time, the profile of the company — and its CEO — have exploded.

Leslie Stahl, who interviewed Zuckerberg in 2008 and for this interview, commented on his more relaxed demeanor, and the fact that he seemed more confident and sure of himself.

In addition to showing off the new profile pages, Zuckerberg was also asked about his thoughts on the film, The Social Network. 60 Minutes played a clip of the movie, in which the fictionalized Zuckerberg retorts, “Is that a question?” against a clip of the real Zuckerberg uttering those same lines on 60 Minutes back in 2008 — an interesting juxtaposition, to say the least.

You can watch both portions of the segment below.

Photo courtesy of 60 Minutes

More About: 60 minutes, facebook, mark zuckerberg, television, the social network, tv

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Mashable Weekend Recap: 15 Stories You Might Have Missed


To help you avoid a severe case of the Mondays, we’ve gathered some of the most helpful articles from the weekend.

The weather’s getting chillier in most parts of America, and those precious weekend days are getting shorter. We hope you enjoyed the time you had, but it’s Monday morning now, so blogs and social media are about to light up with a seizure-worthy array of activity.

This weekend, Apple approved a BitTorrent app for the iPhone — sort of. The Social Network hit theaters and performed well enough at the box office and outstandingly well with critics. Celebrities joined Dan Savage in using social media to reach teens who face bullying, the T-Mobile G2 arrived a little early for some consumers and Verizon cleaned up after itself in the wake of a big billing mixup. We’ve also included some helpful resources and just-for-fun pieces to help you get up to speed.

Thanks for reading!

News Essentials

Helpful Resources

Weekend Leisure

More About: android, apple, Ben Heck, bittorrent, blogging, business, careers, dan savage, dead rising 2, digital marketers, entertainment, gaming, it gets better, jobs, MARKETING, mashable weekend recap, Mobile 2.0, piracy, social gaming, social good, social media, T-Mobile G2, tech, the social network, tumblr, twitter, usb, verizon, video games, web video

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“The Social Network” Hits Theaters: Mashable’s Complete Coverage


The Social Network arrived in theaters nationwide this weekend, pulling in $9 million in its first day as it opened first at the box office. The David Fincher-directed and Aaron Sorkin-written film about Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg might not be as entrenched in the social zeitgeist as Facebook itself, but it’s doing quite well so far.

Earlier this week Mashable hosted two early premieres for the film — one in San Francisco and one in New York City. Additionally, we’ve covered the best commentary from the filmmakers, interviewed composer Trent Reznor and reviewed the film at length.

Check out these stories to make sure you haven’t missed any of the buzz around this major motion picture about social media and entrepreneurship, then let us know what you think of the film if you haven’t already!


Reviews: Mashable, Tumblr

More About: Aaron Sorkin, box office, david fincher, facebook, Film, justin timberlake, mark zuckerberg, movie, Movies, music, opening weekend, the social network, Trent Reznor

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Top 3 Stories in Social Media and Tech This Morning


Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

High-Resolution Photos Come to Facebook

Facebook began rolling out some significant upgrades to its Photos service late Thursday, including the ability to upload and download high-resolution images up to 2048×2048 pixels in dimension, as well as bulk tagging options and a new, elegant lightbox interface for viewing images on the site.

The changes put Facebook on a level with Flickr and other image and portfolio-sharing sites; artists, photographers, models and graphic designers will have every reason to display their work on Facebook now. The new image sizes should also allow users to make quality prints.

Google Street View Now Available on All Seven Continents

Since launching in major U.S. cities in 2007, Google has gradually expanded its Street View service, which allows users to get street-level views of locations they explore on Google Maps. Now, Street View has been made available in Brazil, Ireland and even parts of Antarctica.

The Social Network Arrives in Theaters Today

The Social Network, a feature film that dramatizes the founding and early years of social networking site Facebook, arrives in U.S. theaters today. Mashable’s Christina Warren has posted her full review here.

Further News

  • Developers can now sell their Android apps in 20 more countries, bringing the total to 29. Android users in 18 new countries can also now begin purchasing third-party apps, meaning that 32 nations currently support purchases in the Android Market.
  • The Galaxy Tab will become available to consumers on November 1 in the U.K., Samsung announced this morning.
  • Google has released its goo.gl URL shortener to the public, and created a standalone website so that anyone can use the service to shorten and track the URLs they share via social media sites and e-mail.
  • Just 10 days after Foursquare released the second-generation version of its iPhone app, Foursquare 2.0 for Android has arrived in the Android Market.
  • PayPal has submitted its new check-depositing iPhone app to Apple for inclusion in the App Store.
  • Samsung has informed developers it will discontinue its Symbian support service beginning December 31.
  • The Boston Globe announced Thursday that the online version of its newspaper will be moving from Boston.com to BostonGlobe.com, and that it will begin charging for full access to the latter beginning the second half of next year.

More About: facebook, facebook photos, Google, google street view, the social network

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Version of “The Social Network” [PARODY]

If you’ve been interested in reading Mark Zuckerberg’s opinion on “The Social Network,” you might have to wait a while — the Facebook founder and CEO has stated he has no plans to see the movie. However, that hasn’t stopped the gang at Babelgum and Landline.TV from creating their own “The Social Network” parody, this time from Mark Zuckerberg’s point of view.

You can read our in-depth film review for our perspective on the real film, but we have to say, we liked this version of Mark Zuckerberg as an action hero too.

Who’s your favorite fictionalized Zuck? Let us know in the comments.

More About: Babelgum, facebook, landline tv, Movies, parody, the social network

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Exclusive: Trent Reznor on “The Social Network” [INTERVIEW]


Back when it was first announced that rocker Trent Reznor would be scoring David Fincher’s The Social Network, we thought it was a match made in pop culture heaven — a movie about the dark side of the social networking biz, scored by a man who has plumbed the depths of social media, while also wrestling with its implications? Sign us up.

Well, we got an aural glimpse at the soundtrack the other week after Reznor, along with his record company, The Null Corporation, and Sony’s Madison Gate Records announced the disc on Null Co’s website and gave fans a five-song sneak peek. Now we’re itching to see how music and celluloid go together.

As the premiere of the highly anticipated film rapidly approaches, we decided to talk with Reznor about the experience of scoring a movie in its entirety, the state of the music industry, and, of course, social media on the whole. Check out our interview with the rocker below.

First of all, you’re pretty well-known around the tech and music realm for finding interesting ways to use the web to get your music out. When did you decide to join the digital revolution?
Several years ago, I realized that the record companies are collapsing. The whole format of the business that I dedicated my life to is now collapsing in front of me and people are getting used to getting music for free. As a musician I thought to myself, ‘Let me figure this out.’ I know that answer’s not going to come from record labels, major labels, because they’re run as bloated bureaucracies with people who have no idea what they’re doing. Their first concern is: How do we keep our bottom line, how do we keep milking people?

It’s not about how the kid in the dorm room that likes to listen to music. Or how they find out about music…. They’re not thinking about the artist that finishes the record and turns it in and watches it leak…. I felt furious when the record I’d worked on for a year, that my heart and soul’s gone into, [leaked]. I’m pissed off at people that are listening to it. I’m mad that they’re snubbing me — by what? By being excited about hearing my music? And that’s wrong. I shouldn’t be mad at these people. I should be glad that people are interested.

And a lot of the business models that we’ve come up with, the experiments we’ve tried in the last few years, are just direct results of paying attention to how people use music and how they listen to music.

Well, it seems like you’re taking these lessons to heart. In the past, you’ve released albums in really creative ways — i.e. putting the first volume of Ghosts up on torrent sites, and then offering packages at varying prices for different tiers of fans. Why did you choose to release the soundtrack for the Social Network via Amazon’s deals program?
This record was unusual because it really is a companion piece to something else — and that something else, obviously, is the film. And the film is the main thing, really. So partnering with Sony — because at the end of the day they’re the ones calling the shots — we tried to get this out so that it might grab a little bit more attention than the run-of-the-mill soundtrack, because I also think it’s a great soundtrack.

So that felt to me that it was worth doing. It’s not compromising the integrity of it. It’s not buy a case of Mountain Dew and get a soundtrack if you send in a sticker or any of that kind of bullsh**t. So that’s what we did on that one.

Have you seen any negative reaction to the way the album was released?
I have seen some things pop up like, ‘Why is he doing that?’ and they feel like I took a step backwards. Well, bottom line: I want to be able to offer this to people at the cheapest possible price. And I can’t give it free because it’s not just me [involved], and I also I don’t think free is appropriate for this thing.

Speaking of the film, what was your initial reaction to the idea of a “Facebook movie”? A ton of people seem to think it’s kind of a silly idea.
I myself had the reaction when I got a call from David Fincher, who’s one of my very favorite directors, saying ‘Would you like to score this film?’
‘Yes! What is it?’
‘It’s about social networks. It’s about the founding of Facebook.’
‘Hmm… really? How can that be interesting?’”

When I actually read the script and knowing David was involved — and David brings a level of excellence to what he’s interested in and what he works on — I knew this wasn’t going to be what I feared it could be in lesser hands. [And it became]: How can I help change people’s preconceived notions of what a Facebook movie is — the same feeling I myself had when I first heard of it…. It’s not about Facebook, so much. It’s about people and greed and creation and entitlement. It’s not about how people use Facebook, necessarily.

This is the first movie you’ve ever scored in its entirety. Are you happy with the result?
It was interesting for me to not be boss. I’m not the top of the pyramid here. So, I enjoyed the role of working for someone, for someone else’s vision.

I wanted to make it something that inched up the drama a little bit. And darkened the mood. Because I think there’s a great sense of betrayal and greed that runs through this film that I kind of wanted to play up. So I went off into my laboratory for a few weeks with Atticus, my conspirator, and just generated a bunch of sketches… Somehow we got it right almost the first time. [David] didn’t have an constructive criticism because he was blown away in trying some of these out in different scenes. I would like to say it was genius, but it was probably luck.

My first big moment was right after we gave [the rough cut] to him. He said, ‘I’m showing a very early, super rough edit, come by and check it out. But watch out, we put a lot of your music in it and you had no input on where it it. Just be prepared.’ The lights go down, the movie comes on. And I got goosebumps and I was like, ‘F**ck, we did that?’

I’m very proud of the results and how it turned out. I think it really helped congeal the movie into something that subtly pushes it along and changes the presentation in a cool way. It makes it a little heavier. A little less light.

You have a pretty storied history with social media — you even quit Twitter and other sites a few times. What’s your ultimate opinion of the phenomena?
I can’t participate as a civilian because I have a level of celebrity that makes me not able to use Facebook in the way that someone who’s not a celebrity can use it. I watch people, friends of mine, and see how they portray themselves online and I find interesting that it’s kind of a hyper-real version of yourself, how you’d like to be seen, in a way. And I question the generation or two coming up who are used to engaging people in that format and wonder what the repercussions will be down the road — how human relationships will differ in an age of oversharing.

More About: david fincher, facebook, MARKETING, music, social media, sony, the social network, Trent Reznor

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“The Social Network” Movie Launches a Facebook-Themed Website


Columbia Pictures has just launched the official website for The Social Network, 500MillionFriends.com. David Fincher’s take on the Facebook story is highly anticipated by film fans and social media addicts alike.

The site opens into a large-form portal with photos, videos and cast information, all arranged in a very Facebook-like collage.

The new site carries on the same theme used in the teasers, trailers and TV spots for the film.

Words such as “Punk,” “Traitor” and “Genius” are displayed either as their own or overlayed over other photographs. The site also contains access to cast information, the official synopsis and cast publicity stills.

The Social Network will be in theaters October 1, 2010 and is already garnering rave reviews from Rolling Stone and Film Comment.

What do you think of the new site? will you be going to see the movie when it comes out? Let us know!

More About: facebook, facebook movie, Film, Movies, the social network

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