The British film Atonement was the big winner at last night’s stripped-down Golden Globes Awards, but the achievement was overshadowed by the on-going writer’s strike that has crippled Hollywood and cast serious doubt over the future of next month's Academy Awards.

Other British Globes winners included Julie Christie, for her role as an Alzheimer’s sufferer in Away From Her; Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton, for the Myra Hindley drama Longford; and Ricky Gervais’s show Extras.

It was, however, a surreal evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, where the red-carpet remained rolled-up, the actors stayed away, and the list of winners was reeled-off at a businesslike 30-minute press conference.

One blogger described it as an awards show for people who hate awards shows.

“We all hope that the writers strike will be over soon so that everyone can go back to making good movies and television programs which is what the Golden Globes were designed to celebrate,” said Jorge Camara, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which has put on the boozy event every year since 1944. “Rest assured that next year, the Golden Globe awards will be back bigger and better than ever.”

NBC, the network that had planned to air the ceremony, instead covered the evening as a news event – prompting immediate criticism for blurring the lines between its carefully separated news and entertainment divisions.

Because the winners-announcement was open to all news organisations, NBC was reportedly able to avoid its planned $6 million licensing fee to the HFPA.

Ben Silverman, co-chief of NBC Entertainment, last week complained that that strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) – which resulted in actors refusing to cross picket lines to attend the ceremony – felt as though “the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school are trying to cancel the prom”.

The cancelled ceremony not only meant that hugely expensive after-show parties had to be called off at the last minute, but also that Hollywood studios were denied that free marketing that usually boosts the box-office takings of award-winning movie.

It is estimated that the writers’ strike has so far cost LA’s movie industry $800 million.

While Atonement took Best Picture in the drama category – the movie features James McAvoy and Keira Knightley as tragic lovers in wartime England – Christie, an icon of the swinging Sixties who starred in Dr Zhivago, won Best Actress, also in the drama category.

Her win denied Knightley the Golden Globe, and also saw her triumph over Angelina Jolie for A Mighty Heart, Jodie Foster for The Brave One, and Cate Blanchett, for Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Best Actor in drama went to Daniel Day-Lewis for his role as a misanthropic oilman in There Will Be Blood, a film loosely based the Upton Sinclair novel Oil.

Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, adapted from the hit Broadway show, won best musical or comedy. Its star, Johnny Depp, collected a Golden Globes for best actor in the same category, playing a vengeful barber who slits the throats of his customers.

Best Screenplay went to Ethan and Joel Cohen for their existential crime-thriller No Country for Old Men, and Best Supporting Actor went to the Spanish-born actor Javier Bardem, for his role in that film as a killer so remorseless he might represent Death itself.

“Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press,” said Mr Bardem in a written statement. “It is a great honour to have been recognised with this award in a time when there are so many outstanding performances in this category.”

Best Supporting Actress went to the Australian-born Blanchett, for her role in I’m Not There, in which she was one of six actors who played various incarnations of Bob Dylan.

Marion Cotillard won Best Actress in a musical or comedy for her portrayal of the French singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. Ratatouille won Best Animated Film.

Among the TV recipients, Ricky Gervais’s show Extras won Best Series, in the musical or comedy category, and Jeremy Piven won for his supporting role as a slippery and foul-mouthed Hollywood agent in Entourage.

Jim Broadbent won Best Actor in a mini-series or movie for Longford, with his co-star Samantha Morton winning for Best Supporting actress.

After Sunday’s night non-ceremony ceremony, speculation over the future of the Oscars, due to be held on February 24, will heighten. The Screen Actors Guild is unlikely to allow its members to cross picket-lines to attend the Academy Awards, if the WGA is still striking then.

The writers are striking largely because they want Hollywood’s studios to pay them when TV episodes and movies are streamed online. So far, the studios have refused to do this.

The actors are seeking a similar deal when their union-negotiated contract runs out in June, and have so far supported the WGA. The best hope for a resolution to the industrial action – now in its third month – currently lies with the Directors Guild of America (DGA), which began negotiations with the studios on Saturday.

If the DGA can reach a deal, the writers are likely to accept a contract on similar terms.

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