Targets aplenty for Golden Globe hosts

Jabs for Clooney and North Korea, while Paris deaths cast shadow

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler welcomed Hollywood's "despicable, spoiled, minimally talented brats" to the 72nd annual Golden Globes to celebrate "all the movies that North Korea was okay with".

The hosts, in their third time presiding over the Globes, dived right into the hacking attack against Sony Pictures ahead of the release of the North Korean comedy film The Interview. They also skewered some expected targets like George Clooney (joking that his new wife, Amal Clooney, was more deserving of his lifetime achievement award) and Bill Cosby, whose sexual assault allegations they parodied with duelling impressions.

The awards season favourite, Richard Linklater's 12-years-in-the-making Boyhood, won best movie, drama; best director for Linklater; and best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette.

Perhaps the chief Oscar rival to Boyhood, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's backstage romp Birdman, also fared well. It won best actor in a comedy or musical for its lead, Michael Keaton. But in a shocker, Birdman was upset by Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel for best film, comedy or musical. The film was not an award season favourite.

The terrorist attack in Paris at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo hung heavily over the show. Clooney and others wore "Je Suis Charlie" pins, and Helen Mirren was among the people holding up signs that read the same on the red carpet.

Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Theo Kingma drew a standing ovation for a speech pledging support of free speech "from North Korea to Paris".

The night had an orchestrated but carefree spirit, filled with the usual high dose of glamour.

The DreamWorks sequel How to Train Your Dragon 2 took best animated film over the favourite, The Lego Movie. The Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything won best score for Johann Johannsson. Russian entry Leviathan took best foreign language film.

In one of the evening's most hotly contested categories, best actor in a drama, Eddie Redmayne emerged as victorious for his performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Julianne Moore won best actress in a drama for her startling performance as an academic with early onset Alzheimer's in Still Alice. Amy Adams surprised in taking best actress in a comedy or musical for her performance in Big Eyes.

As the only major awards show to honour both movies and TV, the Globes have also benefited from television's rise. Fey and Poehler alluded to that by leading the crowd in a call-and-response cheer, chanting "Movies ... Awesome! TV ... Better!"

Amazon, crashing the party like Netflix did before it, celebrated its first Globes for the sexual identity comedy Transparent, winning best TV series, musical or comedy. The show's star, Jeffery Tambor, landed best actor in the category, dedicating his award to the transgender community.

AMC's adaptation of the Coen brothers' acclaimed 1996 film, Fargo, came in the leading TV contender with five nominations and promptly won best miniseries or movie, as well as best actor, miniseries or movie, for Billy Bob Thornton.

- AP