Amid a bizarre and, at times, embarrassingly lightweight evening of improvised Golden Globes programming on Sunday — the traditional pageantry of the red carpet having been scrapped due to the striking Hollywood writers — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed its trophies for best picture to underdog nominees “Atonement” (drama) and “Sweeney Todd” (comedy/musical). In the process, the sweeping, romantic adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel and the macabre re-imagining of the Stephen Sondheim musical both emerged as unexpected leaders in this year’s Oscar race.

Daniel Day-Lewis took home lead acting honors for his ruthless oilman in “There Will Be Blood,” as did Johnny Depp for his murderous barber in “Sweeney Todd.” Julie Christie was named best actress for her performance as an Alzheimer’s patient in “Away From Her,” while Marion Cotillard won for her role as Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose.” Best supporting actor went to Javier Bardem for his murderous force of nature in “No Country for Old Men,” and best supporting actress went to the gender-bending Bob Dylan impersonator Cate Blanchett in “I’m Not There.”

While “Atonement” began the evening with the most nominations (seven), Joe Wright’s epic film has been somewhat ignored in recent weeks, as most critical conversation has revolved around the two apparent front-runners, the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood.” To the surprise of many, the HFPA relegated both titles to just one acting award apiece (“No Country” also picked up screenplay honors for the Coens), casting a new air of doubt over the competition for this year’s best picture Oscar.

Oddly enough, the evening’s big winner may have been “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Julian Schnabel’s French-language adaptation of journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir of a life with “locked-in syndrome,” which left him with only the use of his left eye. Taking home the awards for best foreign film and best director, “Diving Bell” — which was overlooked by some critics groups in favor of Cristian Mungiu’s Romanian abortion thriller “4 Months, 3 Weeks, & 2 Days” and Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi’s animated memoir “Persepolis” — climbed to the top of the year’s awards discussion.

The evening’s two big losers — aside from NBC, but more on that in a moment — must be Jason Reitman’s pregnancy romp “Juno” and Tony Gilroy’s law thriller “Michael Clayton.” Both arrived at the Globes in need of momentum, and now both will likely be relegated to the sidelines when the Academy announces its nominations next Tuesday.

Given the wide gamut of winners Sunday evening, and the relative incongruity with the awards already handed out by other groups this year, the Oscar race is as up for grabs as any in recent memory. Just consider this lengthy list of actively competing titles, each with a valid chance of securing one of five best picture nominations: “Atonement,” “Sweeney Todd,” “There Will Be Blood,” “No Country for Old Men,” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “Ratatouille” (winner Sunday evening for best animated film), “Juno,” “The Kite Runner,” “Into the Wild,” “Michael Clayton,” and more.

But the biggest question mark, of course, is whether anyone will actually be at the Kodak Theatre on February 24 to hear their name called. NBC and the HFPA were embroiled in dramatic negotiations all the way up until Friday evening, until the latter finally denied the network exclusive rights to its awards press conference and instead made the event open to all news outlets.

Still, NBC attempted to stitch together a complete evening of Globes programming by screening a special two-hour edition of “Dateline NBC” prior to its hour-long awards announcement at 9 p.m. But since the HFPA press conference only took about 30 minutes, NBC’s announcement show left the network looking like the odd man out. Forget enjoying exclusive coverage of the results — NBC was forced to stretch the list of winners to a full hour, meaning that while the award for best picture was being announced by “Entertainment Tonight” host Mary Hart to a group of reporters at 9:30, NBC didn’t air the winner until just before 10 — 30 minutes behind the news curve.

The abbreviated “Dateline” segments, which focused on an array of Golden Globes nominees, felt flimsy and shallow, and descended into the dread “clip show.” But the “Dateline” special, hosted by Matt Lauer, felt like Shakespeare when compared with the superficial and at times inappropriate rambling of “Access Hollywood” co-host Billy Bush who, along with NBC colleague Nancy O’Dell, announced the awards in dreary fashion on NBC. Repeatedly offering his editorial take on the winners, Mr. Bush gushed about Tim Burton and Mr. Depp’s creative partnership before expressing dismay that Ms. Cotillard edged out Ellen Page (“Juno”) for best actress. Time and again, Mr. Bush (the first cousin of President Bush) lionized and criticized personalities who were not present to respond.

My frustration with Mr. Bush, however, led me to the night’s dose of true poetic justice. At 9:28 p.m., with the NBC broadcast less than halfway through its list of winners, I went online during the commercial break and watched as various awards Web logs were updating the HFPA’s press conference in real time. Hitting refresh, I saw the list of winners expand by the second. In the time it took NBC to air four more commercials, “Atonement” was named best picture. (I also could have watched this real-time unveiling on any number of cable networks, including CNN or E!).

Amid a strike that began due to the hesitation of major networks to share online revenue with writers, my attention — and no doubt that of many others — shifted away from the television and toward the computer. As it turns out, I didn’t need to watch NBC as it padded time with the inane chatter of Mr. Bush and Ms. O’Dell. I just kept hitting the “refresh” button on my Internet browser, and in about half the time, without watching a single NBC advertisement, I already knew everything there was to know about this year’s Golden Globes.

The biggest loser of the night? Old media.

ssnyder@nysun.com