Is Daniel Day-Lewis this year's Helen Mirren? The British star moved a step closer to winning his second Oscar when he won an award for best actor for his sensational performance in the big oil drama There Will Be Blood.

His victory at the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica came in the wake of ecstatic reviews in America for his performance as Texan oil prospector Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson's tale of family, greed and religion.

The Los Angeles Times said: "Day-Lewis works at such a high-wire level that many of the film's supporting cast members simply fade away", while the New York Times critic said: "It's a thrilling performance, among the greatest I've seen, purposefully alienating and brilliantly located at the juncture between cinematic realism and theatrical spectacle."

Day-Lewis, 50, won an Oscar in 1990 for his performance as the writer Christy Brown in My Left Foot, as well as a clutch of other awards for films including Gangs Of New York and In The Name Of The Father.

Anderson, who also directed Magnolia and Boogie Nights, based There Will Be Blood on a 1927 novel by Upton Sinclair. It also won the best composer award for its haunting score by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. It opens in Britain on 15 February.

The overall big winner at the awards was No Country For Old Men, which picked up the awards for best picture, best director for brothers Joel and Ethan Coen and best supporting actor for Javier Bardem.

He accepted awards for the absent Coens, saying, "I'm the third brother, the Spanish one." The cast of Hairspray was best acting ensemble and its newcomer star, Nikki Blonsky, was best young actress. Blonsky, 19, thanked "my mommy who's sitting here crying and my other mommy who's at home, John Travolta." Travolta cross-dressed to play Edna Turnblad.

The teenage pregnancy film Juno collected trophies for best comedy and for screenwriter Diablo Cody.

The Critics' Choice awards ceremony - presented by the Broadcast Film Critics Association in Santa Monica - was able to go ahead despite the Writers Guild of America strike because it was not covered by guild contracts.

Julie Christie won best actress for Away From Her, but she was not present to accept her prize.

Also absent was best young actor Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, star of The Kite Runner, and best supporting actress Amy Ryan, who co-starred opposite Casey Affleck in Gone Baby Gone.

Ratatouille won best animated film, Enchanted was best family film and Michael Moore's Sicko was best documentary feature.

The critics chose The Diving Bell And The Butterfly as the best foreign language film. Asked how he felt, director Julian Schnabel said, "a little drunk and pleasantly surprised."