Final rehearsal before the Oscar's

The 61st Golden Globe awards

Hobbits ruled the Golden Globes on Sunday as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won four trophies, including best dramatic film.

Lost in Translation, a story of two lonely Americans who find friendship in a Tokyo hotel, collected three awards, including best comedy film, best comedy actor for Bill Murray and best screenplay for Sofia Coppola, who wrote, produced and directed the film.

Rings master Peter Jackson was honored as best director, and the final film of the trilogy won two musical awards.

"I never realized that seven years on this movie would end up turning me into a Hobbit," Jackson said. "To all of the actors, our magical cast, you just gave so much to the movies and, equally importantly, you made it so much fun to work on", - reports to &to=http://www.miami.com' target=_blank>Miami.com

A big surprise was how poorly Cold Mountain fared, with only one win out of eight nominations. Renee Zellweger took the best supporting actress for the romantic drama, which had been widely hailed as LOTR 3's strongest competition at the Oscars. Much of the Oscar buzz moved across the room to Clint Eastwood's Mystic River after it won best actor (drama) for Sean Penn, and best supporting actor for Tim Robbins. The Academy's actor contingent could push Mystic River much higher in the contention for the Oscar, if the historical importance of the Golden Globe awards bear out, informs &to=http://www.nbr.co.nz/' target=_blank>NBR.co.nz