Daniel Day-Lewis moved a crucial step closer towards winning his second Oscar when he received the prize for best male actor at this year's Screen Actors Guild awards ceremony in Los Angeles early yesterday.
He received it for his powerful portrayal of an unscrupulous oil prospector in There Will Be Blood, which earned him a Golden Globe award two weeks ago.
The awards are regarded as a strong indicator of the Oscars that follow.
All the voters are actors, and actors constitute by far the biggest voting group among the Oscars electorate.
Last year three of the four actors who received Screen Actors Guild awards went on to win Oscars, including Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren as best actor and best actress.
The only surprise winner at this year's awards was Ruby Dee (83), who was voted best supporting actress for her brief appearance as the mother of the criminal played by Denzel Washington in American Gangster.
She was the only American to win one of the four film awards for individual actors.
Julie Christie, who is English, was named best actress for her moving performance as a woman with Alzheimer's disease in Away From Her.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem took the best supporting actor prize for his portrayal of a cold-blooded amoral villain in No Country for Old Men
The film also received the award for best ensemble cast - the Screen Actors Guild equivalent of a best picture award.
Accepting his award, Daniel Day-Lewis dedicated it to Australian actor Heath Ledger (28), who was found dead in his New York apartment last Tuesday.
"He was unique," Day-Lewis said. "And in Brokeback Mountain he was perfect."
This was a rare sombre moment in the celebratory ceremony.
The organisers had received a waiver from the striking Writers' Guild of America, and the event proceeded as a full-scale, star-studded extravaganza, in marked contrast to the recent Golden Globe awards ceremony, which had to be replaced by a press conference.