Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock share actress award

Voters for the Critics' Choice Awards could not pick an outright best actress winner, so split the prize between Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock.

Streep, a winner for Julie and Julia, and Bullock, who won for The Blind Side, both attended the Los Angeles ceremony to collect their awards.

Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker picked up the best film award, with Kathryn Bigelow also winning for best director.

Avatar won five prizes, including best action movie and technical awards.

Directed by James Cameron, the ex-husband of Bigelow, the film was honoured for its cinematography, editing, art direction, sound and visual effects.

Kathryn Bigelow previously directed Point Break and K19: The Widowmaker

The best actor award went to Jeff Bridges for country music film Crazy Heart.

The best supporting actor and actress awards were collected by Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds and Mo'Nique for Precious respectively.

Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic Inglourious also won best original screenplay and ensemble cast, which included Brad Pitt, Eli Roth and Michael Fassbender.

Musical movie Nine, starring Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson and Nicole Kidman, failed to win in any of the 10 categories in which it was nominated.

Bullock, who on Friday donated $1m (£614,798) to aid the medical charity Doctors Without Borders' relief effort in Haiti, used her time on the winners' podium to talk about the disaster.

"We're all so lucky to be here tonight when so many others are in pain," she said.

"I hope we can all send good love and thoughts and whatever we can."

Last year, voters for the Critics' Choice Awards plumped for Slumdog Millionaire as best film, paving the way for the British hit to sweep the Oscars, where it won eight awards on the night.

'Grisly' Brittany Murphy artwork withdrawn

Promotional artwork for a DVD release showing late actress Brittany Murphy lying apparently lifeless in a bathtub has been pulled by a US rental chain.

Redbox said it planned to complete the removal of DVD covers and posters from its outlets by 1 January.

The artwork promotes Deadline, a direct to DVD title in which Murphy played a writer staying in a haunted house.

A private funeral service is expected to be held later at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

'On her game'

It is the same cemetery where singer Michael Jackson was laid to rest earlier this year.

Murphy, 32, was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre after collapsing in the bathroom of her Hollywood home on Sunday.

The county coroner's office is awaiting the results of toxicology and tissue tests before releasing an official cause of death.

Best known for her roles in Clueless and 8 Mile, Murphy completed a number of films this year that are currently awaiting release.

The director of one, a thriller called Abandoned, said she was delightful to work with and "was on her game".

"She was such a pro and so good at her craft that she could turn it on and off as necessary," said Michael Feifer.