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Cate Blanchett has won a best actress Golden Globe for Tar, becoming Australia's sole trophy winner at the 80th annual awards show on its return to television after a diversity and ethics scandal.

The actress was unable to accept the award in person because she is filming in the UK.

Her win on Tuesday followed losses for fellow Aussies Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Baz Luhrman and Elizabeth Debicki at the Beverly Hills ceremony.

Luhrmann was up for best director for Elvis but lost to Steven Spielberg for his coming-of-age movie The Fabelmans, which along with Elvis was vying with sci-fi blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water for the evening's top honour.

However, Elvis claimed a best actor win for star Austin Butler. "I'm in this room with all my heroes," Butler said while accepting the award. "I can't believe I'm here.

"Brad (Pitt), I love you. Quentin (Tarantino), I printed out the script of 'Pulp Fiction' when I was 12 years old."

Veteran actor Michelle Yeoh also took a top movie award for Everything Everywhere All at Once, beating Robbie for her role in Babylon.

"Hollywood was a dream come true until I came here," the Malaysian actor descent said, noting that she was called a "minority" and asked if she could speak English early in her career.

Forty years later, "it's been an amazing journey and incredible fight to be here today, but I think it's been worth it", she said.

Colin Farrell won lead actor in a movie musical or comedy for his work in the dark Irish comedy The Banshees of Inisherin.

Farrell thanked his fellow cast members, including "Jenny the Donkey".

In TV categories, Julia Garner won best supporting actress in a TV series for Ozark, beating Debicki for her portrayal of Princess Diana in the fifth season of The Crown.

Celebrities and broadcaster NBC abandoned the 2022 Globes because of ethical lapses at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the group that hands out the awards.

A larger, more diverse membership and other changes by the HFPA persuaded many of the biggest movie and TV stars to support this year's ceremony, which provides publicity for winners and nominees and often boosts their chances at the Oscars.

The show unfolded largely as it had in years past, except for a biting monologue from comedian and host Jerrod Carmichael who opened the show joking, "I'm here because I'm black."

"One day you're making mint tea at home. The next day you're invited to be the Black face of an embattled white organization," he said at the ceremony.

Other honorees included Black Panther actress Angela Bassett, who won a supporting actress award for playing Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

"We showed the world what black unity, leadership and love looks like beyond, behind and in front of the camera," Bassett said as she held her trophy.

The flashy Elvis biopic and sci-fi blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water were vying for the top honour of best drama film against The Fabelmans and Tar.

Top Gun: Maverick also was in the mix, though the military action film's chances were likely hurt by star Tom Cruise returning his Globe statues in protest in 2021, awards experts said.

In TV, Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson was honored as best actress in a musical or comedy.

Actor Sean Penn introduced a message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and paid tribute to those struggling in conflict around the world.

"I'm privileged to be here tonight and proud that the leadership of the Hollywood Foreign Press has seen fit to encourage those highest aspirations of film should share this stage tonight with a very real world example of that which inspires film's creation," he said.

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Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has died in Rome, aged 81.

The former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney, died from heart complications on Tuesday following hip surgery.

He was the Vatican's top finance minister before he left Rome in 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne for child sexual abuse offences.

In 2018, Cardinal Pell was convicted of molesting two teenage choirboys in the sacristy at St Patrick's Cathedral while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.

But Cardinal Pell always maintained his innocence and in 2020 his convictions were quashed in a unanimous High Court decision.

Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli said the cardinal was a very significant and influential church leader, in Australia and abroad.

"Let our prayers go out to the God of Jesus Christ, whom Cardinal Pell wholeheartedly believed in and followed, that he may be welcomed into eternal life," the archbishop said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Cardinal Pell was born in Ballarat on June 8, 1941, the eldest child of George, a boxing champion, publican and non-practising Anglican and Margaret, a devout Catholic.

He was ordained a priest at St Peter's Basilica in 1966 and returned to his home town of Ballarat in 1973 to work as a director of the city's Aquinas campus.

He succeeded Sir Frank Little as Melbourne Archbishop in 1996 and then moved to Sydney to be the archbishop there five years later.

At that time, a man claimed Cardinal Pell sexually abused him in 1962 when he was an altar boy. Cardinal Pell denied the charge and in 2003 he became a cardinal in the Vatican.

In 2013, Cardinal Pell appeared before a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse. He acknowledged his church had covered up the "foul crime" and sometimes placed priests above the law.

The following year Pope Francis appointed him cardinal prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, which placed him as the third most powerful man in the Vatican.

After Cardinal Pell's convictions were quashed in 2020, Pope Francis tweeted, "we've been witnessing the persecution that Jesus underwent and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent.

Speaking from Rockhampton, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he expressed his condolences on behalf of the government to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher.

"Archbishop Fisher informed me that there will be a service held in the Vatican in coming days but then there will be a service at St Mary 's Cathedral at sometime in the future," he said

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing assistance to return Cardinal Pell's body back to Australia, Mr Albanese said.

In a Facebook post, Archbishop Fisher said the news came as a shock.

"Please pray for the repose of the soul of Cardinal Pell, for comfort and consolation for his family and for all of those who loved him and are grieving him at this time," he wrote.

The bells at St Mary's Cathedral, the home of Sydney's Catholic Archdiocese, tolled 81 times on Wednesday morning to mark the death.

The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said the cardinal was a man of deep and abiding faith.

"Cardinal Pell provided strong and clear leadership," Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said in a statement.

"(His) impact on the life of the Church in Australia and around the world will continue to be felt for many years."

Victorian government minister Steve Dimopoulos noted it would be a difficult day for survivors and victims of child sexual abuse and their families.

Shine Lawyers, who are representing the father of the altar boy who alleged he was abused by Cardinal Pell, said the legal claim against the church and the cardinal's estate would continue.

The father is seeking damages, claiming he suffered nervous shock after being informed of allegations.

Cardinal Pell's legacy would continue to be mixed because of the allegations of child abuse and church cover-ups, Australian Catholic University senior research fellow Miles Pattenden said.

"But Cardinal Pell was the most powerful Australian ever to have risen through the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church," Dr Pattenden told AAP.

"He put Australia on the map in the Vatican. He was a powerful and effective communicator and politician within the Vatican."

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Stretched renters could soon get relief as the pace of rental growth starts to slow.

Renters endured the fastest growth on Corelogic's records last year, with rock-bottom vacancy rates driving national rents up by 10.2 per cent.

But December quarter rental data shows the pace of growth slowing to two per cent in the final three months of 2022.

This follows 2.3 per cent growth in the September quarter and the peak three per cent rate of growth in the three months to May.

PropTrack data, released on the same day, also showed rental price growth steadying in the December quarter.

And while the pace of growth is starting to ebb in line with a slight seasonal easing in vacancy rates and tenants hitting the limit of what they can afford, Corelogic's head of research Eliza Owen said tenants had a while to wait before prices actually started falling.

"Rents are still rising in most capital cities and regional areas with vacancy rates low," Ms Owen said.

Head of Homelessness Australia, Kate Colvin, said vulnerable renters were falling deeper into housing stress.

"These figures are alarming and further proof that more Australians are doing it tough, plunging deeper, or for the first time, into housing stress and poverty," she said.

"The dreadful stories we keep hearing of people sleeping in cars and skipping meals will sadly continue."

Ms Colvin called on the government to ease pressure on renters in the May budget, including upping Commonwealth Rent Assistance payments and putting more money into social housing.

Looking forward, Corelogic said the outlook for the rental market was mixed.

Ms Owen said the return of normal migration patterns, which the government forecasted in its population statement last week, will keep upward pressure on rents, especially in popular parts of Sydney and Melbourne.

Plus, the Reserve Bank's interest rate hiking cycle will slow property investment by limiting the amount that can be borrowed, weighing on supply.

But a seasonal uplift in new listings is expected in early 2023, which will improve choice and ease some of the pressure on rents.

Region by region, Canberra had the sharpest decline in rents, with dwelling rents easing by 0.7 per cent following a peak-to-trough upswing of 18.1 per cent from September 2020.

The nation's capital still holds the title as the most expensive place to rent but by just $2, with Sydney's median rent of $679 per week narrowing the gap.

"Unlike Canberra, high levels of net overseas migration to NSW and Victoria has vastly offset negative net internal migration flows in the year to June 2022," Ms Owen said.

She said the two biggest cities remained the top destinations for migrants.

"This has likely contributed to unprecedented annual growth in unit rents over 2022, which was 15.5 per cent across Sydney and 14.2 per cent in Melbourne."

© AAP 2023