New Zealand actress Anna Paquin has won the best actress category at the Golden Globes awards in Los Angeles.
Paquin won for her role in the vampire television series True Blood.
She was a surprise winner over Sally Field from Brothers and Sisters, Law & Order actress Mariska Hargitay, Kyra Sedgwick from The Closer and January Jones from Mad Men.
Australian actor Heath Ledger won a posthumous Golden Globe award for his role as the Joker in the Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight.
Ledger died of a drug overdose in New York in January last year.
The film's director, Chris Nolan, accepted the award on his behalf, saying the actor would never be forgotten.
Many winners will go on to compete for the Oscars in February, the world's top film honors from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Other awards
Slumdog Millionaire hit the jackpot, winning four awards, including best film drama to give it a leg up in Hollywood's race for Oscars.
Slumdog Millionaire, which tells of a young Indian man looking for love and competing for money on a television game show, also won awards for director Danny Boyle, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and composer A R Rahman for best musical score.
Director Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona was named best film musical or comedy.
Kate Winslet won two Golden Globes, one for best actress in a drama in her role as a frustrated housewife in Revolutionary Road and the second for best supporting actress playing a German woman with a hidden past in The Reader" - only the third time a performer has won two acting awards in one year at the Golden Globes.
Mickey Rourke was named best actor in a film drama with The Wrestler.
Colin Farrell won best actor in a musical or comedy with his role as a hit man in In Bruges, and Sally Hawkins was best actress in the same group for her work as an optimistic teacher in Happy-Go-Lucky.
Wall-E won best animated film, and Israel's Waltz with Bashir was named best foreign language film.
The Golden Globe Awards are being held in Los Angeles on Sunday and feature a who's who of the film and television industry.
The awards, which are voted on by 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are one of the most watched Hollywood awards shows.
