Australian actress Cate Blanchett has picked up the Best Actress Golden Globe award for her work in the movie Blue Jasmine.
Earlier, Breaking Bad won the award for best TV Drama Series at the Golden Globes.
The win came after Bryan Cranston won for Best Actor in a TV drama.
Aaron Paul, who played Jesse Pinkman in the series, accepted the award for the cast with his character’s famous line: "Yeah, b—-!"
The celebrity fashion parade got under way a couple of hours before the show itself - although only after workers mopped up water from what organisers called a "malfunction with a sprinkler" that flooded the red carpet.
Best actress nominee Amy Adams was among the early arrivals at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, which sought to make light of the near flooding disaster.
"As some of the biggest names in entertainment are scheduled to attend the Golden Globe Awards tonight, we wanted to give the carpet one last wash before it opened," the hotel said in a statement.
Harrowing saga 12 Years a Slave and crime caper American Hustle are likely frontrunners at the 71st annual show, preceded by numerous star-studded parties.
The race for glory features the strongest field in years, with other contenders including 3D space drama Gravity, Somali piracy tale Captain Phillips, and Scorsese's scandal epic The Wolf of Wall Street.
On the small screen - increasingly important as big-screen stars and money migrate to television - Netflix's pioneering House of Cards could win more gold, as could cult hit Breaking Bad, after its finale in September.
Comedy stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will host the Globes for a second year, while a string of nominees including Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Leonardo DiCaprio and Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence will be among those handing out prizes.
Going into Sunday night's show, 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle have the most nominations with seven nods each, followed by five for black and white road movie Nebraska."
Both frontrunners garnered nods for their main actors, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o and Michael Fassbender for 12 Years a Slave, and Adams, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Lawrence for American Hustle.
Captain Phillips starring Hanks in the true story of a US cargo ship attacked by Somali hijackers, and Gravity, with Bullock as an astronaut stranded in space with George Clooney, won four nods apiece.
In the drama race, 12 Years a Slave, based on a real story of a free black man abducted and sold into slavery in the 1840s, is up against Captain Phillips, Gravity, Philomena and Rush.
Nominated for best drama actor are Ejiofor, Hanks, Idris Elba for Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, Matthew McConaughey for Dallas
Buyers Club and Robert Redford for All Is Lost.
A trio of British actresses are vying for the drama award - Emma Thompson in Saving Mr Banks, Judi Dench for Philomena and Kate
Winslet for Labor Day - along with Australian Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine and Bullock.
The Globes have separate categories for drama and musical/comedy films.
For best musical or comedy the shortlist is American Hustle, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska and The Wolf of Wall Street starring DiCaprio.
Best musical or comedy actor nominees include DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix for Her and Meryl Streep for August: Osage County, as well as the American Hustle cast members.
Best director nominees are Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity, David O. Russell for American Hustle, Alexander Payne for Nebraska, Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips and Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave.
The Globes are run by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), and voted on by barely 80 journalists - in contrast to the Oscars, chosen by 6,000 members of the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Nominations for the Oscars will be announced on Thursday. The Academy Awards will be held on March 2.
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