Boyhood prevails with three Golden Globes

Coming-of-age tale Boyhood won the coveted Golden Globe for best drama, while the quirky period caper The Grand Budapest Hotel was the surprise winner for best comedy or musical, in a big upset to awards season front-runner Birdman.

The first major awards for the Hollywood film industry this year were scattered widely among many films, potentially setting up a complex race toward the industry's top honors, the Oscars, on Feb 22.

Sunday's awards night took on a more somber tone from the start when stars like George Clooney and Helen Mirren showed their support for free expression and the victims of the deadly attack on a French satirical newspaper in Paris last week.