SAG nominations announced

The race for next year's awards season kicked off yesterday, when the announcement of the SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) Awards nominations.

Actor Sean Penn's directorial venture, Into the Wild, seems to be a front runner with a total of four nominations.

Penn's movie has also been nominated in the best performance by an overall cast category, and if he bags that award come Jan 27, he may just be on his way to receiving a golden statue at the Oscars.

It's said that the SAG awards are a pretty good indicators of what to expect at the Oscars.

And the nominees are

Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Marion Cotillard, Angelina Jolie and Ellen Page have been nominated in the best actress category.

Meanwhile, Into the WIld's hero Emile Hirsch is in the running for best actor. He'll be competing with George Clooney, Danial Day-Lewis, Viggo Mortensen and Ryan Gosling for the honour.