Golden Globes 2024: Robert Downey Jr and Da'Vine Joy Randolph among early winners

Robert Downey Jr and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are among the early winners at the Golden Globe Awards.

The ceremony is taking place at the Beverley Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

Downey Jr won best supporting actor for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.

He acknowledged the film's unlikely box office success in his acceptance speech, joking: "A sweeping story about the ethical dilemma of nuclear weapons grosses $1bn?"

The actor continued: "Dozens of folks have come up to me since the summer time saying I was unrecognisably subtle as Lewis Strauss. To my fellow nominees, let's not pretend this is a compliment."

He also referred to the changes made to the Golden Globes membership following a scandal over corruption and a lack of diversity. "Thanks for changing your game," he said.

Randolph won best supporting actress for her portrayal in The Holdovers of a woman suffering immense grief after the death of her son.

"Mary, you have changed my life, you have made me feel seen in so many ways," she said, referring to the character she plays. "And I hope I helped you all find your inner Mary, because there is a little bit of her in all of us."

Addressing the film's director Alexander Payne, she said: "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to play this beautiful and flawed woman."

Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, Past Lives and May December are among the other film nominees at the ceremony, while Succession, The Crown and The Last of Us are nominated in the TV categories.

The Globes mark the first major ceremony of film awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on 10 March.

There are some new categories at this year's Golden Globes, including one which recognises box office achievement.

Emma Stone, Sandra Hüller, Lily Gladstone, Margot Robbie, Annette Bening and Carey Mulligan are among the nominees in the two best actress categories - which are split by drama and musical or comedy.

Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, Leonardo DiCaprio and Bradley Cooper are recognised across the two best actor categories.

The Golden Globe Awards will air on the CBS network in the US and also stream on Paramount+ with Showtime.

The ceremony starts at 01:00 GMT and usually lasts between three and four hours.

It is broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

Barbie, Greta Gerwig's big screen adaptation of life in plastic, leads the charge at the Globes with nine nominations.

However, three of these nominations are in the same category. Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Ryan Gosling all have nods for the songs they contribute to the film's soundtrack.

Barbie made $1.44bn (£1.14m) at the global box office, and was memorably released on the same day as Oppenheimer, which took $953m (£755m) and has eight nominations.

Christopher Nolan's biopic of the inventor of the nuclear bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, could not have been more tonally different, but audiences flocked to see both movies over the summer.

There are seven nominations for Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, which is about members of an Osage tribe who were brutally murdered in the 1920s as white settlers attempted to move into their land, fuelled by greed over oil.

Poor Things is also nominated in seven categories. Yorgos Lanthimos's adaptation of the novel of the same name sees Emma Stone play an infant whose brain has been transplanted into an adult woman's body, and goes on an adventure of self-discovery across the world.

Celine Song's directorial debut Past Lives has five nominations. It follows a woman living in the US who reconnects with the man who was her best friend at school when she was growing up in South Korea.

There are four nominations apiece for Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall and May December, about an actress who spends time with the real-life subject of her next movie, a woman who was at the centre of a tabloid scandal.

This year's ceremony is being hosted by US comedian and actor Jo Koy.

Although not a huge name in the UK, the 52-year-old has previously fronted specials for Comedy Central and Netflix. His acting credits include Haunted Mansion and Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens.

In a statement, Koy said: "I've stepped onto a lot of stages around the world in my career, but this one is going to be extra special.

"I'm so excited to be hosting... This is that moment where I get to make my Filipino family proud. Mahal Kita (Google it)!"

We did Google it, and Mahal Kita is a Filipino expression which means "I love you".

Category presenters on the night will include Oprah Winfrey, Matt Damon, Jared Leto, Dua Lipa, Ben Affleck, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett and Florence Pugh.

Eight of the year's highest-earning, most acclaimed or most watched films are nominated in the new cinematic and box office achievement category.

This is partly an attempt to make sure box office smashes like Barbie and Oppenheimer are recognised, but it's also a way for the Globes to bring in different types of movies and invite more celebrities to the ceremony.

Taylor Swift is nominated for her concert film The Eras Tour. Mainstream films which don't generally show up during awards season are also recognised, with nominations for the latest John Wick, Mission: Impossible and Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

The other new category is best stand-up comedian on television. The nominees are Ricky Gervais, Trevor Noah, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman and Wanda Sykes.

The organisation which was behind the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), caused controversy in 2021 due to allegations of corruption and a lack of diversity within its voting body.

The 2022 ceremony was dramatically pared down as the Globes got their house in order. The number of members on the voting body rose from around 90 to 300 over the following three years and is now significantly more diverse.

The HFPA was dissolved following the controversy and the event was sold to Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions.

Questions remained over whether the Globes would be allowed back into the Hollywood fold, but stars overwhelmingly returned to the ceremony in 2023 as a rumoured boycott failed to materialise.

But expanding the members' body came with its own problems - some members threatened to abstain from voting after finding out they were not invited to this year's ceremony.

The Golden Globes are traditionally a more light-hearted event than many of the other ceremonies in film awards season.

Taking place in the first week of January, celebrity guests are usually in a good mood, fresh from their Christmas break, and ready to mingle over a few drinks.

In contrast, the Bafta Film Awards and the Oscars are much more formal events - and the prizes more prestigious.

But a win at the Golden Globes can add significant momentum to an awards campaign, with the recipients given the opportunity to deliver a rousing acceptance speech on TV at a time when Oscar voters are considering their own nominations.

There is a much higher chance of a Golden Globe nomination than an Oscar nod. There are 20 slots available in the film acting categories in total at the Academy Awards, compared with 36 at the Globes.