The film 12 Years a Slave took the coveted Golden Globe for best drama and American Hustle won best musical or comedy on Sunday in a kick-off to the Hollywood awards season foreshadowing a scattering of honours for a year crowded with high-quality movies.

Only two films garnered more than one award at the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, an important but not entirely accurate barometer for the industry’s highest honours: the Academy Awards that will be held on March 2.

American Hustle, a romp through corruption in the 1970s directed by David O. Russell, was the top winner with three Globes for its seven nominations, while modest Aids film Dallas Buyers Club starring Matthew McConaughey took home two acting awards for him and co-star Jared Leto.

British director Steve McQueen’s brutal depiction of pre-Civil War American slavery in 12 Years a Slave, based on a true story of free black man Solomon Northup who was sold into slavery, only won one award out of its seven nominations. It was entirely shut out from the acting honours, for which it had been a presumed favourite.

But best drama is the top award and McQueen thanked actor and producer Brad Pitt, who played a small part in the film but a big role in getting it made.

“Without you this movie would never had gotten made, so thank you, wherever you may be,” McQueen said.

Among those that left empty-handed were two darlings of critics, the Coen brothers’ paean to the 1960s folk scene Inside Llewyn Davis and Alexander Payne’s homage to the heartland, Nebraska.

The first big night of the Hollywood awards season is the purview of some 90 journalists in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), who wield outsized clout in the awards race as buzz around these honours influences members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in their voting for the Oscars.

Oscar nominations are to be announced on Thursday and 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle are likely to be in the list of 10 nominees for best picture, going head-to-head unlike in the Globes, where they competed in two separate categories.

The Globes have a mixed record when it comes to predicting the Oscar best picture, though last year’s best drama winner, Argo, did go on to win the Academy Award for best movie.

In a setting more intimate and whimsical than the tightly scripted Oscars, A-listers and powerbrokers pow-wowed over cocktails and returning co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler poked fun at the most powerful in the glamorous audience.

It was a night in which there seemed to be a prize for almost every film, a reflection of a banner year for quality cinema in which critically acclaimed pictures piled up in the last half of the year.

The top drama acting awards went to Cate Blanchett for her turn as a riches-to-rags socialite in Woody Allen’s tragicomedy Blue Jasmine and McConaughey for his portrayal of unlikely Aids activist Ron Woodroof for which he lost 22.7kg.

“Ron Woodroof’s story was an underdog, for years it was an underdog, we couldn’t get it made... I’m so glad it got passed on so many times or it wouldn’t have come to me,” said McConaughey, widely lauded for a string of strong performances this year.

Russell, who reunited cast members from his previous films, reaped the rewards of loyal actors.

Amy Adams won best actress in a musical or comedy for her role as the conniving partner to a conman played by Christian Bale in American Hustle, while Jennifer Lawrence took best supporting actress for her turn as his loopy wife.

Ron Woodroof’s story was an underdog, for years it was an underdog, we couldn’t get it made... I’m so glad it got passed on so many times or it wouldn’t have come to me- Matthew McConaughey

“David, you write such amazing roles for women,” Adams told the star-studded room as she accepted the award.

She starred in Russell’s 2010 The Fighter, while Lawrence won the best actress Oscar last year for his previous film, Silver Linings Playbook.

The HFPA is known to also reward big Hollywood names and this year Leonardo DiCaprio won best actor in a musical or comedy for his role as a fast-living, drug-popping, swindling stockbroker in The Wolf of Wall Street, his fifth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese.

“As the history of cinema unfolds, you will be regarded as one of the great artists of all time,” DiCaprio told Scorsese as he accepted the award.

Mexican film-maker Alfonso Cuarón won best director for his existential space thriller Gravity, a film starring Sandra Bullock as an astronaut tumbling through space that has won praise for its groundbreaking technical advances.

Director Spike Jonze took home the Globe for best screenplay for his quirky computer-age comedy Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

The HFPA honoured Allen with the Cecil B. DeMille award recognising outstanding contribution to the entertainment field. Famously averse to awards shows, the 78-year-old Allen sent one of his favourite actresses, Diane Keaton, to stand in for him.

The Golden Globes are also the opening salvo for red carpet fashion, and this year Hollywood’s leading ladies appeared to favour shimmery champagne, silver and gold, along with bright reds and vibrant floral shades for their gowns.

In the television awards, Breaking Bad won best drama for its offbeat story about a schoolteacher turned drug kingpin, a show that concluded last year with its much acclaimed fifth and final season.

“This is such a wonderful honour and such a lovely way to say goodbye to the show that meant so much to me,” said Bryan Cranston, who accepted the award for best actor in a drama series.

Golden Globe Award winners

Film

Best drama
12 Years a Slave

Best comedy or musical
American Hustle

Best actor, drama
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best actress, drama
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Best actor, comedy or musical
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best actress, comedy or musical
Amy Adams, American Hustle

Best supporting actor
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Best supporting actress
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Best director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity

Best foreign language film
La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty), Italy

Best animated film
Frozen

Best screenplay
Spike Jonze, Her

Best original score
Alex Ebert, All is Lost

Best original song
Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Cecil B. Demille award
Woody Allen

Television

Best drama series
Breaking Bad, AMC

Best comedy series
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, FOX

Best actor, drama
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad

Best actress, drama
Robin Wright, House of Cards

Best actor, comedy
Andy Samberg, Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Best actress, comedy
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Best TV film or miniseries
Behind the Candelabra, HBO

Best actor, miniseries/television movie
Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra

Best actress, miniseries/television movie
Elisabeth Moss, Top of the Lake

Best supporting actor, TV/miniseries/ television movie
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan

Best supporting actress, TV/miniseries/television movie
Jacqueline Bisset, Dancing on the Edge