wins big Los Angeles, Jan 8 (PTI) "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" today won four Golden Globes, including Best Drama, in an overtly political awards ceremony where Hollywood's biggest turned up in black to say it was "Time's Up" for sexual harassment.
The glittering 75th Golden Globes ceremony, honouring achievements in television and cinema, sent out the message that a new post Harvey Weinstein-era could be on the horizon.
Most award winners, particularly Oprah Winfrey, Nicole Kidman and Frances McDormand, gave rousing speeches on the need for change and gender and race equality.
"Three Billboards...", about an angry mother who goes to extremes to keep the investigation focused on her daughter's murder, became a front-runner at the Oscars.
McDormand won Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama Golden Globe, co-star Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor and Martin McDonagh was recognised for Best Screenplay.
The awards were dedicated to what McDormand referred to as the "tectonic shift" in Hollywood's power structure after more than 70 women accused powerful producer Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
Women in the industry have launched the Time's Up movement to address gender disparity and abuse and almost all of Hollywood -- both women and men -- turned up in black at the red carpet to show their support.
McDormand, 60, addressed the Time's Up movement in her acceptance speech, saying, "Some of you may know, I keep my politics private, but it was really great to be in this room tonight and to be part of a tectonic shift in our industry's power structure." Winfrey, 63, the first African-American woman to be honoured with the annual Cecil B DeMille Award, used her time on stage to deliver a powerful speech about inclusion.
Winfrey, who received a standing ovation twice in her eight-minute speech, said women have not been heard or believed for speaking truth to power but that has to change.
"I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me too' again," she said.
The Hollywood Foreign Press, criticised for not including women in the Best Director category, tried to make amends by bestowing Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird" with Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Actress for Saoirse Ronan.
"The Shape of Water", which entered the race with maximum seven nominations, won the Best Director for Guillermo del Toro and the Best Score for Alexandre Desplat.
Gary Oldman won Best Actor in a Drama, for playing Winston Churchill in "the Darkest Hour".
Allison Janney won Best Supporting Actress for her role of an abusive mother in "I, Tonya", a real-life drama on figure skater Tonya Harding.
James Franco won Best Actor in a Comedy for "The Disaster Artist" about Tommy Wiseau, the eccentric Hollywood figure behind "The Room", known as the "Citizen Kane" of bad movies.
But the actor was criticised for rudely blocking Wiseau from the microphone during his acceptance speech onstage.
"Coco" was named Best Animated Film.
Fatih Akin's German revenge drama "In the Fade", starring Diane Kruger, was named Best Foreign Film.
Some expected winners returned empty handed.
Steven Spielberg's newspaper drama "The Post", which had six nominations, including nods for lead stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, failed to win anything.
"Call Me by Your Name" and "All the Money in the World" and "Get Out" were the other films that were snubbed.
In the television category, women dominated the wins.
"Big Little Lies", "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" were the major winners.
"Big Little Lies" star Kidman got the award for Best Actress in a Television Movie or Limited Series.
"This character that I played represents something that is at the centre of our conversation right now: abuse. I do believe and I hope that we can elicit change through the stories we tell and the way we tell them," Kidman said.
Her co-stars Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern won Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and the show also won for Best Limited Series or TV movie.
The TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale" won Best Drama while lead star Elisabeth Moss got the Globe for Best Actress in a Drama.
"This Is Us" star Sterling K Brown created history by becoming the first African-American actor to win the Best Actor - Drama award.
"I am being seen for who I am, and being appreciated for who I am, and it makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me or dismiss anybody who looks like me," Brown said.
Indian-origin Aziz Ansari finally took home a Globe, winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series Musical/Comedy category for his role in "The Master Of None".
The Amazon series "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel", about a 1950s housewife who becomes a stand-up comic after discovering her husband has been cheating on her, won the Globe for Best TV Comedy, and its leading lady, Rachel Brosnahan, walked away with the Best Actress in a Comedy trophy.
Award ceremony host Seth Meyers was the first to address, as he put it, the "elephant not in the room".
"It's 2018 and marijuana is finally allowed, and sexual harassment finally isn't," he began.
"Good evening ladies and remaining gentlemen... There's a new era underway and I can tell because it's been years since a white man was this nervous in Hollywood," he said.
The host took potshots at Weinstein and said the reason he was chosen to present the awards is because he is "a man with completely no power in Hollywood".