COMING-OF-AGE tale “Boyhood” won the coveted Golden Globe for best drama on Sunday, while the quirky period caper “The Grand Budapest Hotel” was the surprise winner for best comedy or musical, in a big upset to awards season front-runner “Birdman.”

    The first major awards for the Hollywood film industry this year were scattered widely among many films, potentially setting up a complex race towards the industry’s top honors, the Oscars, on Feb. 22.

    The night took on a more somber tone from the beginning when stars like George Clooney and Helen Mirren showed their support for free expression and the victims of a deadly attack on a satirical French newspaper last week.

    The president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the Globes, brought the room to a standing ovation by saying, “Together we will stand united against anyone who would repress free speech anywhere from North Korea to Paris.”

    “Boyhood” took three Globes from five nominations, including the night’s top drama film honor, a reward for the unprecedented cinematic venture of making a film over 12 years with the same actors. The man behind the low-budget experiment, Richard Linklater, won best director and Patricia Arquette won best supporting actress.

    If “Boyhood” goes on to win the Academy Award for best picture, it will constitute an extraordinary run for a film from the small studio IFC Films.

    “When he came to us with this project 14 years ago, we said yes, the man has such humanity. He’s so humble. He put so much of his own life into this movie,” “Boyhood” producer Jonathan Sehring said of Linklater.

    “Birdman,” a satire of show business that led all nominees with seven nods, picked up best screenplay and best actor in a comedy or musical for Michael Keaton, embodying a comeback in both the film and real life.

    But losing best comedy or musical to “The Grand Budapest Hotel” from director Wes Anderson was a big blow to the awards momentum of “Birdman.” The colorful tale of a hotel concierge caught up in a murder mystery and art heist won only that award.

    Up to 10 films can compete for the Oscar best picture. In the last two years, the winner of best drama at the Globes has gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture.

    Another top drama contender to suffer disappointment was the Martin Luther King Jr. biopic “Selma,” which made history with the first nomination for best director for an African-American woman. It won one award: best song for “Glory.”

    “The Imitation Game,” a British biopic about a World War II codebreaking hero, walked away empty-handed despite the popularity of its star, Benedict Cumberbatch, and the heft of its distributor, the awards-savvy Weinstein Co.

    Julianne Moore won best actress in a drama as an early-onset Alzheimer’s patient in “Still Alice,” while Eddie Redmayne took best actor in a drama for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.”

    George Clooney, receiving a lifetime achievement award and sporting a lapel pin declaring “Je suis Charlie,” noted the “extraordinary day” in Paris and around the world as millions of people and world leaders marched to pay tribute to victims of Islamist militant attacks.

    (SD-Agencies)