- Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There

- Ruby Dee - American Gangster

- Katherine Keener - Into The Wild

- Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone

- Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Cate Blanchett
This is the second nomination for Cate Blanchett at this year's Screen Actors Guild Awards having also been nominated for Best Actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age.It is however her supporting role in I'm Not There that has won critical acclaim and the most award success picking up the Best Supporting Actress gong at the recent Golden Globes.I'm Not There’ is a biographical film reflecting the life of musician Bob Dylan. It depicts the iconic singer-songwriter through seven distinct stages of his life by using six different actors (Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, and Cate Blanchett), though all six characters have names other than Bob Dylan. The title ‘I'm Not There’ is a reference to the Dylan outtake recorded during The Basement Tapes (Sessions) and production began in late July 2006 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

It premiered at the 34th Telluride Film Festival on August 31st and won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actress honours for Blanchett at the 64th Venice Film Festival.

She scooped the Volpi Cup at 64th International Venice Film Festival for her role as Jude Quinn in ‘I’m Not there’ and has also been nominated in both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, in the supporting category she is heavy favourite to win.

Amy Ryan

Gone Baby Gone is Amy Ryan's third movie this year after success with Dan in Real Life with Steve Carrell and Before You Know Your Dead with Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

While she earned great reviews for her role as the sheriff's wife in Capote it is her role in Gone Baby Gone as a drug addicted mother whose little girl has been abducted has brought her all the attention.

Gone Baby Gone is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane which has been adapted by Ben Affleck in his directorial debut.

Set in Boston in a neighbourhood of Dorchester four year old Amanda McCready has disappeared without a trace.

The child's aunt and uncle plead with local private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Genano (Michelle Monaghan) to take on the case.

The pair, who know the city well, dig into the child's pat discovering a drug-addicted mother, ex-cons, child abuse and drug dealers but this brings them no nearer to finding Amanda.

They join forces with detective Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and together they discover the sad truth of Amanda's fate.

But Patrick can't walk away from the case and goes back over the clues finding himself being driven into a web of lies and violence which leaves him facing a moral dilemma.

We will next see Amy Adams in The Changeling, Clint Eastwood's new project with Angelina Jolie and The Missing.

Tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton is one of the industry’s most under-rated actresses and has received another nominated for her role in Michael Clayton.

Clooney plays a burnt-out lawyer and professional 'fixer' who gets caught up in events that surrounded a corporate cover up.

Clooney once again gives a mightily impressive performance as Clayton showing the character's many layers giving him genuine depth as he discovers what kind of person he is.

There are also some great support performances in particular Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens, who suffers a serious meltdown, and Tilda Swinton's murderous company chief counsel.

Over the years Swinton has moved effortlessly between big blockbuster movies like Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Beach to the more independent movies such as Young Adam and The Statement.

But for her latest role in Michael Clayton Swinton has received rave reviews as her emotionally cold persona is portrayed superbly and used to great effect.

Ruby Dee

Ruby Dee is perhaps one of the lesser known actresses in this category and has been nominated for her role in Ridley Scott's crime thriller American Gangster.

The film follows the true story of Frank Lucas, a hero of 1970s Harlem, who masterminded a drug enterprise that allowed him to smuggle heroin from South East Asia and Vietnam onto the street of New York.

Dee plays Lucas' ageing mother whom he dotes on using the money from his criminal lifestyle, dragging his brothers into his dangerous world.

Despite being a fairly small role in the film Ruby Dee was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Catherine Keener

Katherine Keener is no stranger to award nominations after being receieving two Oscar nods for her supporting roles in Capote and Being John Malkovich.

Her latest nomination comes for her role as Jan Burres Sean Penn's critically acclaimed Into The Wild.

Newly graduated Christopher McCandless walks away from his promising future and privileged lifestyle in search of adventure.

McCandless hitchikes across America visiting South Dakota, the Colarado River, Slab City California before reaching Alaska where he met his untimely death.

Into the Wild has been met well critically winning a string of awards including: the Gotham Award for Best Feature Film, Mill Valley Film Festival for Best Actor (Emile Hirsch) and the Palm Springs International Film Festival for Director of the Year.

However the film and it's cast, except Hal Holbrook, have been overlooked at the Oscar, the BAFTAs and the recent Golden Globes.

Tip to win - Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There

Helen Earnshaw