Action adventure Avatar, whose 3-D effects have wowed critics and fans and helped it earn $1.6 billion (€1.1billion) at global box offices, claimed best film drama and top director for Titanic filmmaker James Cameron.
"3D is going to be the future," Cameron told reporters backstage. "The one thing Avatar could do because of its success, especially its critical success, is give permission to other filmmakers to think of 3D."
Among actors, Sandra Bullock earned the title of best film actress in a drama for football movie The Blind Side, while industry veteran Jeff Bridges was best dramatic actor for his turn as a down-and-out country singer in Crazy Heart.
The Hangover, about friends on a trip to Las Vegas that goes woefully wrong ($277 million at US and Canadian box offices), claimed best film comedy.
It showed that after recent years of favoring art house films like last year's big winner Slumdog Millionaire, Golden Globe voters at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) liked crowd pleasers of 2009.
"It is such a wonderful trip this film, we just set out to make a funny comedy," director Todd Phillips told reporters.
Robert Downey, Jr. won the Golden Globe for best comedy actor for his turn as super sleuth Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes, and Meryl Streep was the top actress in a comedy for cooking film Julie & Julia.
Germany's The White Ribbon, a major success at the 2009 Cannes film festival, was named best foreign language movie.
The Golden Globes are given out by some 90 members of the HFPA, and a win here can give movies the momentum they need in Hollywood's race for Oscars, the world's top movie honours given out in March.
But awards seemed less on the minds of many Hollywood stars than did the recent disaster in Haiti as several acceptance speeches were filled with statements of thankfulness by A-list celebrities.
Many stars wore yellow, blue and red ribbons to show their support for victims.
Streep said she had to remember "my happy movie self, in the face of everything I'm aware of in the real world."
Elsewhere, Inglourious Basterds star Christoph Waltz was named best supporting actor in a film, and Mo'Nique earned best supporting film actress, going against her reputation as a comedienne and playing an abusive mother in dark drama Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire.
Disney adventure Up won two early Golden Globes, best animated movie and original score.
Among television awards, Mad Men, about the lives of Madison Avenue advertising executives, claimed its third straight Golden Globe for best drama and upstart musical Glee was named best comedy or musical in an upset over past winner 30 Rock.
Reuters