Traditional studios take top film honors at Golden Globe awards

BEVERLY HILLS - Movie studios owned by Comcast Corp and Sony Corp won the top film honors at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday, overshadowing a number of nominees from streaming service Netflix Inc.

World War One epic 1917, released by Comcast's Universal Pictures, was the surprise winner of best motion picture drama at the star-studded ceremony, which kicked off Hollywood's competitive awards season.

Sunday's other top movie award - best musical or comedy film - went to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood from Sony Pictures. The Quentin Tarantino 1960s drama led the movie field with three awards in total.

Awards experts say both are likely to be in the running for the movie industry's most-coveted prize, the best picture trophy that will be given out at the Feb 9 Oscars ceremony. Movie studios use the awards in marketing to try to attract new audiences.

Netflix, which began releasing original movies in 2015, has been courting awards voters and also is expected to compete for best picture. It had three films in the race for best movie drama at the Globes: The Irishman, Marriage Story and The Two Popes.

The streaming service scored one movie award, for Laura Dern as a supporting actress in Marriage Story.

At the start of the Globes ceremony, host Ricky Gervais predicted a big night for Netflix.

"Everyone's watching Netflix," Gervais said. "This show should just be me coming out going 'Well done, Netflix. You win.' But no, we have to go on for three hours."

But in addition to the film honor, Netflix landed only one other trophy. Olivia Colman was named best actress in a TV drama for playing Queen Elizabeth on Netflix series The Crown.

Premium network HBO, owned by AT&T Inc, led the TV awards with four, including best TV drama for media dynasty saga Succession.

Apple Inc, which was vying for its first major Hollywood awards since launching its Apple TV+ streaming TV service in November, ended the night without a win.