Hollywood stars focus on election as awards season starts

BEVERLY HILLS, California: The Hollywood awards season began on Sunday with A-list stars using the occasion to make political points two days ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

Robert De Niro urged viewers of the Hollywood Film Awards to vote for Hillary Clinton as he said the current political climate resembled a film from the Marx Brothers where "lunatics rule the world", according to ceremony organisers.

De Niro, who has previously called Republican candidate Donald Trump "totally nuts" picked up the Hollywood Comedy Award for "The Comedian" in which he plays an ageing comic.

In the ceremony, launched in 1997 and marking the start of the awards season that culminates with the Oscars, the top actor and actress prizes went to films based on real-life events.

Tom Hanks won the Hollywood Actor Award for "Sully" in which he plays the airline pilot who made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in 2009. Natalie Portman took the Hollywood Actress Award for her role as Jacqueline Kennedy in "Jackie".

Nicole Kidman won the Hollywood Supporting Actress Award for the drama "Lion" and Hugh Grant took the supporting actor prize for "Florence Foster Jenkins".

Eddie Murphy was presented with the Hollywood Career Achievement Award.

"It makes you feel old ... because it's a career achievement (award) and they're looking at all of your stuff," Murphy said on the red carpet.