“Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have,” actress and media powerhouse Oprah Winfrey told the audience at the Beverly Hilton as she accepted a lifetime achievement award.

“For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up!” she added, earning a standing ovation.

The industry’s elite turned the red carpet black for the Globes, eschewing bright colours in a fashionable repudiation of disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein and others ensnared in allegations of misconduct.

Watch: sea of black at the Golden Globes

And the overall message at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s champagne-drenched annual prize-giving was a call for continued change.

“People are aware now of a power imbalance. It’s led to abuse in our industry … It’s everywhere,” Meryl Streep, who was nominated for a Globe for her work in media drama The Post, said on the red carpet.

Seth Meyers, making his debut as Globes host, opened the show with joke after joke about Hollywood’s post-Weinstein reckoning.

“It’s 2018, marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn’t. It’s going to be a good year,” the late night NBC funnyman said.

“For the male nominees in the room tonight, this is the first time in three months it won’t be terrifying to hear your name read out loud.”

Leading the pack by the end of the night was Three Billboards, Martin McDonagh’s searing film about a mother who battles local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder

It picked up trophies for best drama, screenplay, actress for Frances McDormand and supporting actor for Sam Rockwell.

“The women are not here for the food, they’re here for the work,” McDormand said to applause, noting the “tectonic shift in our industry’s power structure.”

But McDonagh lost out in the directing category to Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, whose fantasy romance The Shape of Water came in as joint runner-up alongside coming-of-age film Lady Bird with two awards each.

There were no nominations at all for female filmmakers, prompting withering remarks from presenters Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain and Barbra Streisand.

“Did I hear it right – I was the only woman to get the best director award. And, you know, that was 1984? That was 34 years ago? Folks, time’s up,” Streisand said of her victory for Yentl.

While many fields were wide open, James Franco (The Disaster Artist) was always a shoo-in to win best actor in a musical/comedy movie.

Franco – who also directed the film about Tommy Wiseau’s flop-turned-cult-hit The Room – gave a shutout to his brother and co-star Dave, telling the gathered celebrities: “I love him more than anything. Thanks to my mother for giving him to me.”

Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) pipped Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) in the much closer best actress race, and Ronan was back on stage again alongside her director Greta Gerwig when the coming-of-age fable won best comedy movie.

Gary Oldman, acclaimed for virtually disappearing into the role of British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, took home best actor in a drama.

On the small screen, HBO’s Big Little Lies scooped up a rare trio of acting awards for Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern, and another trophy for best limited TV series.

“I hope we can elicit change through the stories we tell and the way we tell them,” said Kidman, who portrayed an abused wife in the show.

Dern urged Hollywood to support survivors of abuse and to promote restorative justice.

“May we teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture’s new North Star,” she said.

Ewan McGregor picked up his first Golden Globe in one of the night’s most star-studded categories, best actor in a limited series or TV movie, for his work on Fargo.

The Handmaid’s Tale followed up its Emmys night glory, when it won four statuettes, by beating perennial awards juggernaut Game of Thrones to the Globe for best TV drama series.

Its star Elisabeth Moss also took home the prize for best actress in a drama, and thanked Margaret Atwood, who wrote the bestselling dystopian novel on which the Hulu series was based.