The 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards have kicked off in post-pandemic style, with far-flung hosts and guests appearing via video link.

Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, hosting from New York and Los Angeles respectively, opened the show with jokes at the expense of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The 87-person organisation, which hands out the prizes, has been lambasted for not including a single black member.

“We all know awards shows are stupid,” Fey said.

“Even in stupid things, inclusivity is important and there are no black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. I realise HFPA maybe you guys didn’t get the memo … but you’ve got to change that.”

Fey and Poehler wasted no time in skewering the HFPA for its shoddy diversity record and ethical lapses.

“The Hollywood Foreign Press association is made up of around 90 international non-black journalists who attend movie junkets each year in search of a better life,” Fey said.

“We say around 90, because a couple of them might be ghosts and it’s rumoured that the German member is just a sausage that somebody drew a little face on.”

She also called them “European weirdos” while both hosts urged the organisation to include black members in its ranks.

Among diverse winners were British actor Daniel Kaluuya, who got the night first award, John Boyega and animated movie Soul. 

Kaluuya won best movie supporting actor for his role as Black Panther activist Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.

Daniel Kaluuya appears on Golden Globes official pre-show. Photo: Getty

Boyega won TV supporting actor for the Small Axe series about life as a black person in 1970s London.

Soul, the first Pixar movie to have a black character in the lead, was named best animated movie and won best score.

Members of the HFPA appeared on the show and responded to the backlash, pledging to do better.

President Ali Sar, who is from Turkey, said the group looked forward to “a more inclusive future”.

John Boyega speaks via live-stream during the Golden Globe Awards. Photo: Getty

In a sign of the shifting power dynamics in the media business, the 2021 show was dominated by streaming services.

Netflix came into the night with a staggering 42 nominations across the film and television categories, including nods for The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Queen’s Gambit and The Crown.

Australians Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett missed out after Anya Taylor-Joy won best performance by an actress in a limited series or TV movie for The Queen’s Gambit.

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Kidman was nominated for The Undoing and Blanchett for Mrs America.

Elsewhere, Aussie singer Sia is vying for best musical or comedy film for her directorial debut, Music.

British royal drama The Crown and comedy Schitt’s Creek won top television honours.

Dan Levy, the co-creator of Schitt’s Creek, called the best comedy series win a “lovely acknowledgement” of the show’s message of inclusion.

Catherine O’Hara won her first Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy series for her portrayal of daffy matriarch Moira Rose in the same show.

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Newcomer Emma Corrin, 25, who played a young Princess Diana in The Crown, was named best TV drama actress, beating veterans Olivia Colman and Laura Linney.

Josh O’Connor, who played Prince Charles in the Netflix series, won best TV drama actor.

A surprised Corrin said, “Thank you so much to Diana. You taught me compassion and empathy.”

Jason Sudeikis, wearing a hoodie, was equally taken aback by his best comedy actor win for TV series Ted Lasso, about an American football coach who gets a soccer job in London.

“That’s nuts,” Sudeikis said.

“That’s crazy. Wow!”

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The Korean-American movie Minari, about an immigrant family starting a farm in rural America in the 1980s, won best foreign language movie.

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In the movie category, Netflix period drama Mank, about the screenwriter of Citizen Kane, went into the show with a leading six nods, including for best drama movie, for actors Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried, and for director David Fincher.

The biggest competition comes from Searchlight Pictures’ Nomadland, a moving documentary-style drama about van dwellers in recession-hit America, and star-laden 1960s hippie courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, also from Netflix.

-with AAP