McQueen picks up Golden Globe for "12 Years a Slave" Amy Adams, winner of the best actress award for American Hustle at the annual Golden Globe ceremony. The Golden Globe for best TV series went to the makers of Breaking Bad. Jennifer Lawrence accepts the award for best supporting actress in a motion picture for American Hustle. British actress Emma Thompson, clutching her shoes and glass, speaks at the Golden Globe ceremony. Michael Douglas, winner of best actor in a miniseries or television film, for Behind the Candelabra. Writer-director Spike Jonze, winner of best screenplay for Her, takes a photo in the press room of the Golden Globe awards. Alfonso Cuaron, winner of the best director award for Gravity. Cast and producers of 12 Years a Slave, winner of the best film drama award. Director Steve McQueen, winner of the best film drama award for 12 Years a Slave, shows off his Golden Globe award. BEVERLY HILLS, California, January 12 - The film 12 Years a Slave took the coveted Golden Globe for best drama and American Hustle won best musical or comedy in a kick-off to the Hollywood awards season that foreshadows a wide scattering of honours for a year crowded with high-quality movies. American Hustle , a romp through corruption in the 1970s directed by David O. Russell, was the top winner, taking home three of its seven nominations for the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, an important but not entirely accurate barometer for the film industry's highest honours, the Academy Awards to be held on March 2. British director Steve McQueen's brutal depiction of pre-Civil war slavery in 12 Years a Slave, based on a true story of a free black man sold into slavery, won just one award out of its seven nominations and was shut out from the acting honours. 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 Matthew McConaughey for his unlikely Aids activist in Dallas Buyers Club. 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. His co-star Jared Leto took the best supporting actor award for his role as Rayon, a transsexual with Aids. 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. Leonardo DiCaprio won best actor in a musical or comedy for his role as a fast-living, drug-popping, swindling stockbroker in the The Wolf of Wall Street ," his fifth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. Mexican film-maker Alfonso Cuaron 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 Golden Globes, under the purview of some 90 journalists in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), have substantial clout in the awards race as buzz around these first honours influences members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in their voting for the Oscars. Nominations for the Oscars will be announced on Thursday, but voting has already concluded. The Globes have a mixed record when it comes to predicting the Oscar best picture, although last year's best drama winner, Argo, did win the Academy Award for best movie.