Remarkably, despite the popularity of the genre, it was only the second western ever to win the best picture award.
As expected, "Argo" claimed the Best Picture award, riding an unstoppable wave of support after Ben Affleck was denied a directing nomination.
Expect Lincoln to still take home the Best Picture award next month.
FORBES: Will The Golden Globes Help 'Argo' Win Best Picture?
The event, held ahead of the Golden Globes, presented its best picture award to Michael Haneke's Amour, about an elderly couple coping with dementia.
BBC: Amour and The Master collect honours at LA critics' awards
It is now considered a front-runner for the best picture award at the Oscars on Feb. 24, even though Affleck was not nominated for best director there.
In the 25 years since Rocky won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the top-grossing film has won the Oscar just five times.
My guess is that this is the movie that takes home the award for Best Picture and Best Director, winning by a hair-thin margin.
Sure, schizophrenia isn't generally considered a crowd-pleaser, but as the year's Golden Globe award for Best Picture, this uniquely refreshing flick has all the prerequisites of an Oscar winner.
Written and directed by a white man, and staring some of the most exciting black actors in show business, it was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture.
The WGA accurately predicted the Academy Award winner for Best Picture about 55% of the time.
Since 2000 only four films have won the big award at the Globes and Best Picture at the Oscars.
Zanuck Award (their version of best picture).
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In other words, every foreign language film nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film lost the first award but won the second.
Just a day before the official announcement of the Academy Award nominees, all signs pointed toward a Best Picture race between Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty, with Argo a strong third ready to exploit any voting-splitting between those other two films.
So while Affleck is shut out of winning a directing award from the big show, could Argo win Best Picture?
FORBES: Will The Golden Globes Help 'Argo' Win Best Picture?
Viewership of the award ceremony increases and decreases depending on the slate of Best Picture films (and what demographic they were aimed at) and who the host is (and what demographic he or she is aimed at).
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Ben Affleck, coming off winning Golden Globe Awards for best motion picture drama and director for the real-life drama, received the award handed out at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The film's producers said they had expected fellow Oscar best-picture nominee "Beasts of the Southern Wild" to win the top Spirit Award and that they have no expectations of winning the big prize at the Oscars, where Ben Affleck's CIA thriller "Argo" is the best-picture favorite.
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