The Coen brothers are the front-runners for their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.

Paul Thomas Anderson is up against them again for There Will Be Blood, partly based on Upton Sinclair's novel, Oil! Canadian actress-turned-writer-director Sarah Polley, at 28 the youngest of the nominees, is shortlisted for her sensitive treatment of an Alice Munro short story in Away From Her.

Completing the shortlist are two former screenplay winners: Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, 1988) for Atonement, and Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, 2002) for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. There could well be a surprise here, but . . .