LOS ANGELES, Jan 11: Road comedy "Sideways," about a pair of men looking for love in the rolling hills of California's wine country, led the nominees for the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Tuesday with four nominations, putting it on the path to Oscar contention.

It was joined among the nominees for best cast in a movie, SAG's highest award, by the Howard Hughes biography "The Aviator," African genocide drama "Hotel Rwanda," female boxing movie "Million Dollar Baby," "Ray," about soul singer Ray Charles and "Finding Neverland," a film about how J.M. Barrie was inspired to create "Peter Pan."

The Screen Actors Guild awards on Feb. 5 will be closely watched in Hollywood as a barometer for the Oscars, the US film industry's top honours presented 22 days later by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"Sideways" earned Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church nominations for best actor and supporting actor, respectively, and one for Virginia Madsen as best supporting actress.

The low-budget movie has been named as 2004's best movie by several critics groups, and the SAG nominations will help boost its hopes for Oscars because many members of the motion picture Academy are also SAG members. -Reuters