The awards season juggernaut rolled on yesterday as the Writers Guild of America unveiled a varied roster of nominees for its top screenwriting honours.

Charlie Kaufman is among contenders in the original screenplay category for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and he will compete against the writers of The Aviator, last year's Sundance hit Garden State, genocide drama Hotel Rwanda, and Kinsey, a biopic of the American sexologist Alfred Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson.

Adapted screenplay nominations have gone to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for the critical darling Sideways and to Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke for Before Sunset, in a strong category that includes the teen comedy Mean Girls, Clint Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, and Che Guevara travelogue The Motorcycle Diaries.

The Writers Guild of America awards will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on February 19.

This weekend the awards season will shift up a gear as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association hands out its coveted Golden Globes.

Sideways, Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Kinsey and Hotel Rwanda are all in the running for Globes, a strong indicator of Academy Awards success that will be expected to offer clues, in an awards season that has thrown up an eclectic roster of contenders with few clear leaders in any category.