Colin Firth claimed best actor honours for The King's Speech but it was Facebook tale The Social Network that triumphed at the Golden Globes with four prizes, including best drama and director.
That enhances its prospects as an Academy Awards favourite.
Firth's Oscar hopes will also benefit after his recognition for his performance as wartime monarch King George VI and his battle against a stammer.
Natalie Portman's stock also rose with an accolade for her role in the ballet-themed psychosexual thriller Black Swan.
Lead-acting honours for the Globes' musical or comedy categories went to Annette Bening for the lesbian-family story The Kids Are All Right and Paul Giamatti for the curmudgeon tale Barney's Version.
The boxing drama The Fighter earned both supporting acting Globes, for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.
David Fincher, directing winner for The Social Network, said he thought it was strange when the script came to him, since he usually makes dark character studies about misanthropes or films about serial killers.
His films include the murder tales Seven and Zodiac.
"I'm personally loath to acknowledge the kind of wonderful response this film has received for fear of becoming addicted to it, so suffice it to say, it's been really nice," said Fincher, whose film also won the Globes for screenplay for Aaron Sorkin and musical score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Sorkin, creator of TV's The West Wing, had kind words for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network.
"Mark Zuckerberg, if you're watching, Rooney Mara makes a prediction at the beginning of the movie. She was wrong. You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a great visionary and an incredible altruist," Sorkin said.
While The Social Network dominated, it was a night with something for almost everybody, as most key films came away with prizes.
The main snub was for the sci-fi blockbuster Inception, a best-drama contender that had four nominations but lost them all.
Johnny Depp, who had two nominations for best musical or comedy actor, also left empty-handed.
The win by Portman as a ballerina coming unhinged amid a production of Swan Lake sets her up for a two-woman showdown for best actress at the February 27 Oscars with Bening, who won for her role as a stern lesbian mom in The Kids Are All Right, which also was named best musical or comedy film.
Portman thanked the film's choreographer, her fiance Benjamin Millepied, with whom she is expecting a child. He also appears in the movie, and his character does not want to sleep with hers.
"He's the best actor! It's not true, he totally wants to sleep with me," Portman said, giggling.
Barney's Version follows the many loves in his life: his three wives, played by Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver and Rosamund Pike, whom Giamatti described as "a trifecta of hotties".
"I got to smoke and drink and get laid in this movie and I got paid for it. An amazing, amazing thing," Giamatti said.
Bening won the musical or comedy actress prize in a field that included The Kids Are All Right co-star Julianne Moore.
The film stars Bening and Moore as a couple whose family falls into turmoil after their teen children seek out the sperm donor that fathered them.
"I'm very proud to be a part of this very special film about two women who are deeply in love and try to keep their family together," Bening said.
"My partner, Julianne Moore, I have to thank first. She asked me to do the picture with her. She made it possible for us to shoot it where we shot it, when we did, so Julianne - you are a class act, thank you."
Ricky Gervais returned as Globes host for the second-straight year.
Gervais pulled few punches as the night progressed, mocking Hugh Hefner, Charlie Sheen, Cher, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Scientologists and Robert Downey Jr, among others.
"Aside from the fact that it's been hugely mean-spirited, with mildly sinister undertones, I'd say the vibe of the show is pretty good so far, wouldn't you?" Downey, a presenter, shot back, perhaps only half-jokingly.
Bale, who won for his role as a former boxer whose career unravelled amid drugs and crime, thanked his collaborators on The Fighter, among them director David O. Russell and star and producer Mark Wahlberg, who plays boxer Micky Ward to Bale's Dicky Eklund, Ward's older half brother.
"I've really got to give a shout out to Mark, because he drove this whole movie, and you can only give a loud performance like the one I gave when you have a quiet anchor and a stoic character," Bale said. "I've played that one many times, and it never gets any notice."
Toy Story 3, the top-grossing film released last year and the second sequel to 1995's digital animation pioneer Toy Story, won the Globe for animated films, making Disney's Pixar Animation unit five-for-five in the category since it was added in 2006.
Past Pixar winners are Up, WALL-E, Ratatouille and Cars.
"Wow, were you two even born when the first 'Toy Story' came out?" Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich said to his award's presenters, 16-year-old pop star Justin Bieber and 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld, co-star of the hit Western True Grit.
Robert De Niro received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement.
The usually taciturn De Niro gave an uncharacteristically interesting acceptance speech, making jokes about members of the HFPA being deported (along with most of the waiters working the event) and suggesting that most people in the room had not seen a lot of the films he was proud of.