Real-life stories were big winners at Golden Globes 2023

From The Dropout to Argentina, 1985, films based on real-life people and events took the top honours

Austin Butler won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for his role as Elvis Presley in the biopic. AP

Real-life stories, whether heinous or inspiring, have dominated the Golden Globes this year.

From the horrific making of a serial killer and sex offender to a thinly-veiled autobiography of one of Hollywood’s most revered filmmakers, here are the winning titles of this year’s Golden Globes that were inspired by real-life people or events.

The Dropout

For her role in The Dropout, Amanda Seyfried won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television.

The crime drama tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes (Seyfried), the founder of the discredited biotechnology company Theranos. Holmes dropped out of Stanford to create Theranos in 2003, becoming the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire. The company claimed to have created a product that could test for hundreds of diseases from a single drop of blood. However, the claims were falsified and Holmes was indicted in 2018 on felony fraud. Last November, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The Dropout was created by Elizabeth Meriwether and is based on a podcast of the same name.

Elvis

Austin Butler won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for his role as Elvis Presley in the biopic.

The film, written and directed by Baz Luhrmann, tells the story of the rock ‘n’ roll singer through the perspective of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). After suffering a stroke, Parker is on his deathbed, made destitute by a gambling addiction, and recounts how he met Presley.

The film received three nominations at this year’s Golden Globes.

Argentina, 1985

Winner of Best Picture, Non-English Language, Argentina, 1985 is based on the true story of two public prosecutors who investigated and indicted the most ruthless military dictatorship in Argentina’s history.

The film is directed by Santiago Mitre. Ricardo Darin stars as prosecutor Julio Cesar Strassera, while Peter Lanzani takes on the role of his peer Luis Moreno Ocampo. Argentina, 1985 depicts the events surrounding the Trial of the Juntas, which held accountable the leaders of the country’s last civil-military dictatorship.

The film marked its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and has an impressive approval grade of 98 per cent on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

The first season of the true crime anthology series shows how Jeffrey Dahmer became one of the most notorious US serial killers and sex offenders of the 20th century.

It stars Evan Peters in the title role, in a performance that earned him the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor, Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture made for Television.

The show examines how police incompetence and carelessness helped Dahmer carry on his killing spree for more than a decade. Dahmer killed 17 men in various states across the US between 1978 and 1991.

The Fabelmans

This coming-of-age drama by Steven Spielberg is inspired by the director’s own childhood and shows how he was introduced to filmmaking in post-war America.

The film won the Best Picture, Drama prize and earned Spielberg the globe for Best Director.

The Fabelmans stars Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy Fabelman, a young budding filmmaker and Spielberg’s surrogate in the film. It also features Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch.

Scroll through the gallery below for more Golden Globe-winning films this year