Epic fantasy film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won four Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, including best film drama, giving it a huge boost on the road to Hollywood?s highest honors, the Oscars. Rings earned Golden Globe awards for New Zealand?s Peter Jackson for best director and claimed trophies for best original film score and favorite song with Into the West, making it a winner in each group in which it was nominated.

Sofia Coppola?s offbeat Lost In Translation, about two Americans in Tokyo who are disenchanted with life and their respective marriages, won three Golden Globes, one for Coppola?s screenplay, a second for Bill Murray in the film?s leading role and the third for best film musical or comedy.

Coppola, the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the Godfather trilogy, said she wrote the film with Murray in mind and literally went to all his friends to convince him to play the part.

Jackson and Lord of the Rings gained the driver?s seat in what had been a wide open Oscar race this year because winners here often go on to claim Academy Awards, the US film industry?s highest awards, and because Rings and Jackson have figured prominently in early critical and industry honors.

Jackson, who spent seven years on the project, joked that it had made him feel ?like a hobbit? and was asked if he thought the awards bestowed on the picture meant an Oscar would follow. ?Well, I don?t know; I tend to not want to think in such competitive terms. I?m happy to receive awards and I?m very grateful. I?m just happy to be a participant and turn up at the shows,? he said backstage.

Sean Penn was named best actor in a drama for his turn as a local thug who seeks retribution for the killing of his daughter in Mystic River, and South African-born Charlize Theron took the Golden Globe for playing a serial killer in Monster, a role she gained 30 pounds to play.