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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 kickoff to the Hollywood awards season that foreshadows a wide scattering of honors 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 honors, the Academy Awards to 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 the modest AIDS film Dallas Buyers Club starring Matthew McConaughey, took 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 a 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 honors, for which it was the presumed favorite. But best drama is the top award of the Golden Globes 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 the films passed by were two darlings of the critics: the Coen brothers' paean to the 1960s folk scene Inside Llewyn Davis and Alexander Payne's homage to the heartland, Nebraska. | 
