Golden Globes winners announced minus the red carpet

The glamorous red carpet ceremony, which takes place annually, has been cancelled this year because of the current writers' strike.

British romantic drama Atonement has won best film at this year's Golden Globe awards.

The film, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, took top honours at a press conference in Los Angeles.

Other winners included Daniel Day-Lewis who took the best actor award for There Will be Blood.

The bloody Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was chosen as best musical or comedy, while its star, Johnny Depp, won for best actor in a musical or comedy.

He plays the vengeful barber who slits the throats of his customers in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's stage musical.

British actress Julie Christie won the best actress Golden Globe for her role as an Alzheimer's sufferer in Away From Her.

Australian Cate Blanchett won best supporting actress in a film for her role in I'm Not There, and France's Marion Cotillard won for best actress in a musical or comedy for her remarkable personification of singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose.

Spaniard Javier Bardem, who plays a killer tracking a fortune in No Country for Old Men, won the Globe for best supporting actor.

No Country for Old Men, which also won the screenplay prize for writer-directors Ethan and Joel Coen, had been expected to win top honours after clinching a number of prizes this awards' season.

But he missed out on the best actor gong to David Duchovny who took the honours for Californication.

The best drama TV series went to Mad Men, and there were best drama acting honours for Glenn Close, for Damages, and Jon Hamm, for Mad Men.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike since 5 November over royalties for work distributed online or on DVD.

Actors had said they would not cross picket lines in support of writers...

Instead, the winners were announced in a low-key news conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel without any of the stars being present.

On Friday, the writers announced they would not picket the news conference after it was decided that the event, which had been scheduled to appear as an exclusive NBC broadcast, would be made available to all media.

But production crew workers protested outside the Beverly Hilton prior to the press conference.

They held placards calling for an end to the 71-day strike that has brought many films and TV shows to a halt.

Although the Globes are viewed as a form guide for the Oscars, in recent years the awards have thrown up false leads.

For the past three years, none of the Golden Globes' best movie drama winners has gone on to win the best picture Oscar.