The film awards season begins tomorrow with the Golden Globe Awards and climaxing in the Oscars next month. Steve Pratt looks at who's in the running for the gongs this year.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: three words that mean so much in Hollywood at this time of year. The phrase forms a sort of begging letter from producers and studios, asking Oscar voters to back their particular movies.

The pages of the trade magazines are chock-a-block with ads for films pleading to be considered in the Academy Awards. Scenes from the movies are surrounded by evidence that someone, somewhere loves them.

"Winner Best Picture, National Board of Review" screams the ad for Finding Neverland, which tells how JM Barrie came to write Peter Pan. And it doesn't end there, as the numbers game continues with mention of its five Golden Globe award nominations, four London Film Critics Award nominations and seven Critics' Choice Award Nominations crammed on the ad too.

This boasting is typical of the cut-throat business of winning, where the joy of taking home a gold-plated statuette is almost secondary to the extra box office income such a victory can generate.

The season starts before Christmas and climaxes with the Academy Awards ceremony next month. The intervening weeks see stars and film-makers wooing voters by any means the rules allow.

Now it's getting serious. The 62nd Golden Globe awards, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are handed out tomorrow. Eight days later the Oscar nominations are announced. The Brits get in on the act by revealing the shortlist for this year's British Film Awards on Monday.

Many of the same films and actors will feature in the multitude of awards. Virtually every city in the US seems to have a critics' circle wanting to present their own gongs. The key awards are a useful, if not entirely accurate, indication of who the prize guys and gals might be come Oscar time. In one way, all the other awards ceremonies are mere foreplay before the big one - the Oscars. That's the one that really counts.

The Golden Globes confuse matters by having twice as many nominations as everyone else by splitting categories into drama and musical or comedy. The number of voters is considerably smaller than those who put their Xs on Academy Award voting papers.

Just because Alexander Payne's smart comedy Sideways polled seven Golden Globe nominations doesn't mean it will necessarily dominate the Oscar line-up. The Aviator with six nods, and five apiece for Closer, Finding Neverland and Million Dollar Baby, are clear contenders too.

The competition is as close as it's ever been.

Payne's film, about two friends hitting the vineyards of California on a pre-wedding stag trip, has been described as "2004's little film that just might win". I hope it does because Payne, who made Election and About Schmidt, is a director who doesn't force himself on the material with flashy camerawork and fancy editing. He's just a consummate film-maker who makes entertaining movies.

At 75, Clint Eastwood is enjoying something of a renaissance. Mystic River did well awards-wise and his new boxing movie, Million Dollar Baby, has Oscar hopeful stamped all over it. Eastwood the director has a better chance of winning than Eastwood the leading man (although he's great as a veteran fight trainer).

The acting honours are more likely to go to Hilary Swank - a previous best actress winner for Boys Don't Cry - for her performance as the waitress who dreams of being a champ in the ring. Morgan Freeman, as Eastwood's right hand man, is certain of a place in the best supporting actor category.

Before anyone saw Oliver Stone's epic Alexander, it was tipped as Oscar bait. Now its only chance lies in the design categories, leaving two others biopics to fight it out. Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, the story of aviation and movie industry pioneer Howard Hughes, could bring him the best director Oscar that has so far eluded him, despite five nominations.

Ray, the story of blind musician Ray Charles, contains many things that Oscar voters love - being a true tale of someone overcoming a handicap to find fame and fortune. They may prefer him to Hughes, who hardly went from rags to riches as he was left a fortune at a young age.

Kevin Spacey has an outside chance of making the short list for his portrayal of singer Bobby Darin in Beyond The Sea, which he also directed. Paul Giamatti gets consistently good reviews and could earn a nomination as the wine buff and would-be writer in Sideways.

Another biopic, Kinsey, tells of the life and loves of the man who pioneered research into sexual habits and shocked America with the results. It may be too adult for voters, rather like the frank language and raw emotions in Closer, in which Julia Roberts and others grapple with modern-day relationships.

More to their liking will be Finding Neverland in which JM Barrie writes Peter Pan after befriending a mother and her sons. As the writer, Johnny Depp and his Scottish accent seem assured of another nomination to follow on from last year's for Pirates Of The Caribbean.

Voters have shown an unwillingness to take Jim Carrey seriously in the past, so he may miss out again for either Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind or Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Even if he makes the short list, the odds of winning are slim. Jamie Foxx might as well start writing his acceptance speech now. A few years ago no-one could have predicted that the former stand-up comedian would be a hot Oscar prospect.

He's already collected half-a-dozen critics' awards for Ray. On top of that he earned Golden Globe nominations as supporting actor for Collateral and for the TV movie Redemption. Earning Oscar nods for both Ray and Collateral is a distinct possibility. His only worry is that it would split the vote and see him go home empty-handed.

British actress Imelda Staunton, giving the performance of her life in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, faces another problem. She has six or more best actress accolades already for her heart-breaking turn as the woman who "helps out" girls in trouble in 1950s London. The subject matter of abortion may alienate some, robbing her of victory come Oscar night.

If Staunton doesn't win, then another Brit, Kate Winslet, has a chance - either for her eccentric turn in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind or her more secondary role in Finding Neverland. Hilary Swank too is a strong contender as Million Dollar Baby's female fighter.

Expect The Aviator, Closer, Million Dollar Baby and Finding Neverland to be four of the five best film nominees. Ray, Kinsey and perhaps even animated hit The Incredibles could fill the other place.

In the best animated film category, The Incredibles will slug it out with Shrek 2. As the original Shrek won the first animated feature Oscar, the makers will want to make it a double.

If there are surprises in the Oscar nominations, two of last year's more controversial and successful pictures will provide them. Mel Gibson spent his own money bankrolling his pet project after others laughed at the idea of Biblical drama The Passion Of The Christ. The film went on to take more than $600m worldwide. Success in the face of adversity is something Hollywood loves.

They're more likely to be divided by Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary. Disney refused to release it, only to see the film become the first documentary to top the $100m mark. The picture took home the top Palme d'Or prize from the Cannes Film Festival but the chances of snatching the best picture Oscar are more remote.