Oscar best screenplay race narrows

LOS ANGELES - The Oscar race for best screenplay has narrowed after several films about clashing cultures and lonely people, including "Lost in Translation", "The Station Agent" and "Dirty Pretty Things", were nominated for Writers Guild of America Awards.

All five nominees for best original screenplay went to "indie" films that played well on the arthouse circuit, among them Sophia Coppola's feature about an American actor in Japan; first-time director Tom McCarthy's railroad-themed movie about three forlorn and unlikely friends; and Steven Knight's dark tale about the seamy, secret world of illegal immigrants.

They were joined by "In America", the story of an Irish immigrant family finding their way in the New York, and "Bend It Like Beckham", the light-hearted tale of an Indian girl in London who defies her family to play soccer.

Writer-director Jim Sheridan, whose previous works include "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father", co-wrote "In America" with his daughters, Naomi and Kirsten. "Beckham" is credited to Gurinder Chadha, Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra.

The Writers Guild Award is seen as an important precursor to the Oscars which are handed out on February 29 this year as many Guild members are also academy voters.

The nominations for best adapted screenplay went to a collection of more mainstream, wide-release films - "Cold Mountain", "Mystic River", "Seabiscuit" and "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" - as well as "American Splendor", a quirky but acclaimed film about an idiosyncratic comic book artist.

The list comes out less than a week before nominations for the Academy Awards, Hollywood's top film honours, are announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Writers Guild awards are regarded as an important bellwether for a film's Oscar chances, especially in the screenplay categories.

"Return of the King", the conclusion of the fantasy trilogy adapted by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, already has emerged as an Oscar front-runner, having been named best picture by the New York and Chicago film critics groups and the Producers Guild of America.

"American Splendor", written by Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman and based on the comic book series of Harvey Pekar, picked up best-picture laurels from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics.

The National Board of Review started off the pre-Oscar awards season by giving its top prize to "Mystic River", the Clint Eastwood-directed drama adopted by Brian Helgeland from the novel by Dennis Lehane.

The Civil War epic "Cold Mountain", written and directed by Anthony Minghella and based on the novel by Charles Frazier, led the list of Golden Globe nominations announced in December, including a nod for best screenplay.

"Seabiscuit", adapted by Gary Ross from the nonfiction book about the famous race horse by Laura Hillenbrand, has picked up nominations from the Golden Globes, the Directors Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild.

- REUTERS