Screen actors pick "Dreamgirls" among top films

LOS ANGELES, Jan 5 (Reuters) The Screen Actors Guild named the casts of musical ''Dreamgirls'' and crime thriller ''The Departed'' among the nominees for best performance in a film, helping boost their chances at winning Oscars.

The guild, which represents film and television actors, also nominated yesterday the actors in dramas ''Bobby'' and ''Babel,'' as well as the comedy ''Little Miss Sunshine'' in the category for best ensemble performance, SAG's top award.

SAG's awards are among Hollywood's top honors, and are often considered a key indicator of who will vie for Oscars in February because actors make the largest group of voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars.

The nominees for best actor in a movie were led by Forest Whitaker playing former dictator Idi Amin in ''The Last King of Scotland,'' and Britain's Peter O'Toole, as an elderly man who is smitten with a young woman in ''Venus.'' The other nominees for best actor in a film included Will Smith playing a father who overcomes tremendous odds to better his life in box office hit ''The Pursuit of Happyness,'' as well as Leonardo DiCaprio as a diamond smuggler in ''Blood Diamond'' and Ryan Gosling as a school teacher in ''Half Nelson.'' SAG's nominees for best actress in a movie were Helen Mirren in ''The Queen,'' an insiders' look at the British royal family, and two other English actresses, Judi Dench portraying a school teacher in ''Notes on a Scandal'' and Kate Winslet as a woman involved in an extramarital affair in ''Little Children.'' Rounding out the list of nominees for best film actress were Spain's Penelope Cruz portraying a woman trying to hide the death of her husband in ''Volver'' and Meryl Streep as a wicked fashion magazine editor in ''The Devil Wears Prada.'' SAG award winners will be named on January 28 in a ceremony in Los Angeles. The Oscars are handed out on February 25.

REUTERS MQA RAI0946