Avatar does the double at Golden Globes 2010

James Cameron's science-fiction blockbuster Avatar, well on the way to becoming the highest-grossing film in history, was the big winner at last night's Golden Globe awards in Los Angeles. It won best film in the drama category and best director, making it the front-runner for the best film Oscar in March.

If Cameron was a predictable winner on a rain-swept night in Hollywood, there were several surprise losers. The George Clooney film, Up in the Air had led the pack with six nominations but came out with only one award, best screenplay for director Jason Reitman and his collaborator Sheldon Turner.

There was no award for Clooney who many thought was a shoo-in after giving the best performance of his career as the man who flies around American firing employees on behalf of cowardly bosses. Instead, the award for best actor in a drama went to Jeff Bridges for his role as a broken-down country rock musician in Crazy Heart.

Neither of Clooney's co-stars - Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga - were rewarded for their superb performances either. Both women were up for best supporting actress but lost out to Mo'Nique for her role as the abusive mother of the obese, illiterate Harlem girl Precious in the film of the same name.

Gabourey Sidibe, the unknown who played the title role in Precious, was beaten to best actress by Sandra Bullock for her part in The Blind Side. The film tells  the real-life story of a middle-class mum who takes in a troubled black foster child and encourages him to become a successful college football player. This meant that three British actresses up for the same award - Emily Blunt, Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan - all come home empty-handed, too.

Unlike the Oscars and most other award ceremonies, the Golden Globe film awards are divides into two categories - drama and musical/comedy.

In the latter category, a welcome winner of best film was The Hangover, the hilarious account of a bachelor party which goes wrong when three friends lose the groom in Las Vegas.

Best actor in a musical or comedy went to Robert Downey Jr for the title role in the recent Guy Ritchie film Sherlock Holmes. Best actress went to Meryl Streep for her role as the famous American chef Julia Child in Julie & Julia.

After Up in the Air, which at least received one award, the big loser of the night was unquestionably the Rob Marshall-directed musical Nine which had been up for five awards - including acting nominations for Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz - and won nothing. Here the judges were on the side of the public who voted with their feet and made Nine the box-office turkey this Christmas.

The success of Avatar meant there were no awards for Cameron's ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow. She made this year's best war film, The Hurt Locker, about a US bomb disposal unit operating in Baghdad in 2004.

Despite the success of her former husband's blockbuster last night, there remain many in Hollywood who hope Bigelow will be honoured in March as the first woman to win a best director Oscar.

• Full list of winners and losers• UK opening dates for the big winners: Precious: January 29
Crazy Heart: February 19
Blind Side: March 12 ·