Green Book emerged the biggest winner with three trophies -- Best Drama, Best Supporting actor for Mahershala Ali and Best Screenplay for its three writers Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie and Nick Vallelonga, on whose father's story the film is based.
Hosted by Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh, who became the first Asian to emcee a Hollywood award show, the ceremony on Sunday night kept the tone light even as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organisation behind the awards, recognised diversity and women empowerment.
Globes, an early indicator of how the Hollywood award season will pan out, are also known for being unpredictable and mixing up categories and this year was no different.
Green Book emerged the biggest winner with three trophies -- Best Drama, Best Supporting actor for Mahershala Ali and Best Screenplay for its three writers Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie and Nick Vallelonga, on whose father's story the film is based.
The film follows a black pianist, Dr Don Shirley (Ali), and his unusual friendship with his white chauffeur Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) as they drive through America's racially-divided south.
Bohemian Rhapsody, which is the highest grossing musical biopic of all time, won the Best Drama trophy, besting front-runners A Star Is Born, Black Panther, If Beale Street Could Talk and BlacKkKlansman.
"That was unexpected," producer Graham King admitted in his acceptance speech.
The film's lead star Rami Malek's win was, however, more on expected lines for his lifelike portrayal of the Mumbai-born British rocker Freddie Mercury.
"Thank you, Freddie Mercury, for giving me the joy of a lifetime, he said.
Both Malek and King noticeably omitted the film's director Brian Singer's name from their thank you speeches. Singer, who also gave the ceremony a miss, was fired from the job just weeks before the film's completion even though he retained the directing credits.
Veteran actor Glenn Close infused warmth in an otherwise dull ceremony with her rousing speech after she won the Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama Golden Globe for The Wife.
Unable to hold back her tears, the 71-year-old actor said, "Oh my God, I just can't believe this."
"As women, we are nurturers and that's what is expected of us...(But) We have to find personal fulfilment, we have to follow our dreams. We have to say 'I can do that and I should be allowed to do that'," Close said as the room honoured her with a standing ovation.
While Close was emotional, Olivia Coleman, who won the Best Actress In A Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy category, was playfully irreverent as she thanked "her bitches", Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, her co-stars in The Favourite.
The period film, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, revolves around British monarch Queen Anne and the tussle between two women courtiers to become her 'favourite'.
The actor dropped F-bombs, which were expectedly cut out from the live telecast, and said the best part about playing Queen Anne was that she could eat "constantly throughout the film".
"I would like to tell you how much this film means to me but I can't think of it, because I'm too excited," she said.
Christian Bale, who went through another physical transformation to play former US vice president Dick Cheney, won the Best Actor -Musical or Comedy for Adam McKay's political satire Vice.
He joked that from here on, he will be "cornering the market" on playing "charisma-free a**holes," adding, "What do you think, Mitch McConnell (politician) next?"
"Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role," Bale added.
The Best Supporting Actress winner was Regina King for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk and she pledged to include 50 per cent women in all her future projects.
"In the next two years, everything that I produce, I am making a vow, and it's going to be tough, to make sure that everything that I produce, that it's 50% women, and I just challenge anyone out there who is in a position of power I challenge you to challenge yourselves and do the same," she said.
Alfonso Cuaron's widely-loved Netflix film "Roma" won two awards -- The Best Director trophy for Cuaron and in the Best Foreign Film Category.
The Mexican filmmaker, who is widely expected to win major nominations at the Oscars again with the semi-autobiographical black-and-white drama, said: "cinema at its best tears down walls and builds bridges to other cultures".
Cuaron, who earlier won the Oscar for Gravity, said, "As we cross these bridges and experience new shapes and faces, we begin to realise that while they may be strange, they are not unfamiliar. We begin to understand exactly how much we have in common."
Best Motion Picture - Animated went to Sony's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In a major snub, A Star Is Born had to be content with a lone win for Best Original Song for Shallow. Both actor-director Bradley Cooper and actor Lady Gaga lost out in their respective categories.
The Best Original Score went to Justin Hurwitz for Damien Chazelle's space drama First Man, which fizzled out in award season despite critical acclaim.
Actor Chris Pine presented the career award, the annual Cecil B. DeMille honour, to his Hell or High Water co-star, veteran actor Jeff Bridges.
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