Ledger and Winslet receive Globes

Winslet and Ledger won for The Reader and The Dark Knight respectively

British actress Kate Winslet has been named best supporting actress at the Golden Globe awards in Los Angeles.

The star - who won the award for her role as a Nazi prison guard in The Reader - said she was "shocked" as she had "a habit of not winning things".

Heath Ledger, meanwhile, has received a posthumous supporting actor award for his performance in The Dark Knight.

Director Christopher Nolan accepted the prize, saying the late actor would be "eternally missed but never forgotten".

Sally Hawkins and Tom Wilkinson are among the other British recipients of honours at the ceremony, being held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Hawkins has been named best actress in a comedy for her role as an optimistic schoolteacher in Mike Leigh's film Happy-Go-Lucky.

Wilkinson, meanwhile, was named best supporting actor in a mini-series for his role as Benjamin Franklin in HBO period drama John Adams.

Mistake

The Globes - handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - are often regarded as an indicator of the movies and actors who will go on to win honours at the Academy Awards.

Unlike the Oscars or the Baftas, however, the ceremony has different categories for dramas and comedies.

Both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are in line for acting honours

Other winners include singer Bruce Springsteen, who received the best original song prize for his title track to The Wrestler.

The performer paid tribute to fellow nominee Clint Eastwood, saying it had felt "pretty good" to be competing against the veteran star.

Pixar's Wall-E was named best animated feature, while HBO's John Adams has been named best TV mini-series.

Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg will receive the Cecil B DeMille Award later for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field".

On Friday, Golden Globe organisers apologised for a mistake on the awards website which suggested that Anne Hathaway had won the gong for best actress in a drama.

An asterisk appeared on the site next to Hathaway's name in a list of nominees.

A statement on the Golden Globes website said the actress had been "randomly marked as a winner" by mistake and it did not mean that she had won the award for her role in Rachel Getting Married.

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Extracts from some of the nominees