Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius checks out the winners of this year's blink-and-you'd-have-missed-them Golden Globe Awards.

A recent casualty of the striking Writers Guild of America was the Golden Globe Awards. With no one to write the show and the promise of pickets outside it, not to mention every actor in town staying home in support of their creative brethren, the ceremony was reduced from a lavishly star-studded, world-televised affair to a one-hour press conference announcing the winners, none of whom were present to receive their awards.

Late last year when the nominations were announced, Joe Wright's love-and-war drama Atonement scored the most with seven, but there were lots of other movies snapping at its heels. Films like Ridley Scott's American Gangster, David Cronenberg Eastern Promises, Paul Thomas Anderson There Will Be Blood, Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters, The Coens' No Country For Old Men and Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton. Breaking with tradition, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association put all seven of these movies up for Best Picture (Drama), rather than the usual five. Looking brightest in the Best Picture (Music or Comedy) category, Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War appeared to be in good shape with five nominations.

As the director of The Great Debators and the star of American Gangster, Denzel Washington's was happy to see both those movies nominated for Best Picture (Drama), the cherry on the cake being a Best Actor (Drama) nomination for American Gangster. Cate Blanchett received two nods, Best Actress (Drama) for Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and Best Supporting Actress for Todd Haynes' I'm Not There. Philip Seymour Hoffman similarly picked up a pair of nominations, one for Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) in Tamara Jenkins' The Savages, and the other for Best Supporting Actor in Charlie Wilson's War.

When the winners were announced on January 13 it appeared there'd been too many good movies to choose from as nothing ultimately received more than two awards. Though it won the evening's top honour, besides Best Picture (Drama) the only other Globe snagged by Atonement was for Best Score (Dario Marianelli). Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won Best Picture (Comedy/Musical), with star Johnny Depp winning his first ever Globe (Best Actor - Musical or Comedy) for the title role. Also walking away with a pair of Globes were critics' picks No Country For Old Men, winning Best Screenplay for the Coens and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem, and Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, winning Best Foreign Language Film and more unexpectedly, Best Director.

Had he been there, I'm sure Daniel Day-Lewis would have been delighted to receive the Best Actor (Drama) Globe for There Will Be Blood, likewise Julie Christie for her Best Actress (Drama) award for Sarah Polley's Away From Her. Marion Cotillard was named Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) for Olivier Dahan's La Vie En Rose, while Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There. Rounding off the big screen awards, Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava's Ratatouille beat David Silverman's The Simpsons Movie to Best Animated Film, while Sean Penn's Into the Wild won Best Original Song ('Guaranteed').

Winners of the TV awards included Best Series (Musical or Comedy) for Extras, Best Actor for Californication's David Duchovny and Best Supporting Actor for Entourage's Jeremy Piven, while HBO film Longford won a mighty three awards, more than any other show or film, two for actors Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton, and the third for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

With the Golden Globes out of the way, all eyes now turn to the Oscars, and fingers crossed they'll manage more than a drab little press conference. As for the future of the Globes, Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Jorge Camara promises next year's show will be "bigger and better" than ever before. Providing, of course, the strike's over by then.

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