Steven Spielberg claimed top honours, including best drama at the Golden Globes on Tuesday for his deeply personal film "The Fabelmans", as Hollywood's A-list stars flocked to the first major awards show of the year.

The other top film award, best comedy or musical, went to "The Banshees of Inisherin" – a tragicomedy about a shattered friendship on a remote Irish island that ended the night with the most movie prizes.

Spielberg, who also took home the award for best director, thanked his family including his late mother, who he said would be "up there kvelling about this right now".

"The Fabelmans" covers the troubled marriage of Spielberg's parents, anti-Semitic bullying, and the director's early efforts making zero-budget movies with his teenage friends.

"Everybody sees me as a success story, and everybody sees all of us the way they perceive us based on how they get the information," said the 76-year-old filmmaker.

"But nobody really knows who we are until we're courageous enough to tell everyone who we are."

Spielberg said films like "ET" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" had used elements from his real life, but he had "never had the courage to hit this story head on" until now.

"Inisherin" also earned a win for Colin Farrell for best comedy actor, boosting his Oscar hopes, and for writer-director Martin McDonagh for best screenplay.

Austin Butler, stepping into Elvis Presley's blue suede shoes for rock-and-roll biopic "Elvis", won best actor in a drama, while Angela Bassett won best supporting actress for Marvel blockbuster "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever".

But Cate Blanchett, who won best drama actress for "Tar", in which she plays a ruthless conductor navigating the cutthroat world of classical music, did not attend the gala.

Michelle Yeoh won best comedy actress for the surreal "Everything Everywhere All At Once", and her co-star in the multiverse-hopping sci-fi film, Ke Huy Quan, won best supporting actor. (AFP)