The Golden Globes red carpet was a sea of black dresses and tuxedos as activists for racial and gender equality joined actors and filmmakers for the annual ceremony.
The usually glitzy affair took a more sombre tone as stars rejected brightly coloured gowns and jewels in favour of all-black outfits to stand in solidarity with victims of sexual abuse.
Many guests at the ceremony wore badges emblazoned with the words Time’s Up, the campaign backed by scores of Hollywood heavyweights, to end gender discrimination across all industries.
Among those wearing the badges were British winners Gary Oldman and Ewan McGregor, nominee Daniel Kaluuya and guests Justin Timberlake and Hugh Grant.
Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Emma Watson were among the actresses who were joined by activists on the red carpet.
Williams was accompanied by Tarana Burke, the founder of the Me Too movement, while Streep walked the red carpet with Ai-jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Dern was just one of the actresses who gave impassioned speeches about equality at the ceremony.
Collecting the prize for best supporting actress in a limited series for Big Little Lies, she said: “Many of us were taught not to tattle. It was a culture of silencing and that was normalised.
“I urge all of us to not only support survivors and bystanders who are brave enough to tell their truth, but to promote restorative justice. May we also please protect and employ them.”
Her co-star Nicole Kidman, who played a domestic violence survivor on the series, told the room: “This character that I played represents something that is the centre of our conversation right now – abuse.
“I do believe, and I hope, we can elicit change through the stories we tell and the way we tell them.”
Reese Witherspoon, who starred alongside Kidman and Dern in the series, and also served as its producer, collected the prize for best TV movie or limited series, saying: “People out there that are feeling silenced by harassment, discrimination, abuse – time’s up. We see you, we hear you, and we will tell your stories.”
The Handmaid’s Tale showrunner Bruce Miller dedicated the series’ win for best TV drama to “all people in this room, in this country, in this world, who are doing everything they can to stop The Handmaid’s Tale from becoming real. Keep doing that”.
Elisabeth Moss, the star of the show, collected the award for best actress in a TV drama for the adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel and read a quote from the author.
She said: “This is from Margaret Atwood: ‘We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.’”
She continued: “Margaret Atwood, this is for you and all of the women who came before you and after you, who were brave enough to speak out against intolerance and injustice and to fight for equality and freedom in this world.
“We no longer live in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. We no longer live in the gaps between the stories. We are the story in print. And we are writing the story ourselves.”
Oprah Winfrey drew the biggest applause of the night for her rousing speech about equality, telling girls watching the ceremony that a “new day is on the horizon” where no one will be the victim of sexual harassment and assault.
“When that new day finally dawns it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure they become the leaders to take us to the time where nobody has to say ‘me too’ again,” she said, to a standing ovation.
Natalie Portman highlighted the absence of women in the best director category while presenting the award to The Shape Of Water’s Guillermo Del Toro.
Introducing the list of contenders, she pointedly said: “Here are the all-male nominees.”
Thelma & Louise stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis also made a dig at the gender pay gap in the industry while presenting the best actor in a drama prize to Oldman for Darkest Hour.
Announcing the nominees, Davis joked they had all “agreed to give half of their salary back, so the women can make more than them”.