Gosford Park and A Beautiful Mind have been named as the best written films of 2001 by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) - a further pointer towards the outcome of the Oscars.

The WGA awards, held in Los Angeles on Saturday, gave British screenwriter Julian Fellowes the trophy for best original screenplay for Gosford Park.

Akiva Goldsman won best adapted screenplay for A Beautiful Mind, a film based on Sylvia Nasar's best-selling biography of schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash.

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Both films were nominated in these same categories for the Academy Awards on 24 March. They are also up against each other for best film.

Overall, Gosford Park - US director Robert Altman's British comedy of manners - holds seven Oscar nominations.

Meanwhile, A Beautiful Mind - starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ron Howard - has eight.

Ineligible

In the WGA awards, Gosford Park beat off competition from sumptuous Parisian musical Moulin Rouge, another primary Oscar contender.

A Beautiful Mind triumphed over war movie Black Hawk Down, from the Oscar nominated British director Ridley Scott.

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WGA spokesman, Michael Seel, said that the awards have, in their 53 years, been 80% accurate in predicting the winners of the best original and best adapted screenplay Oscars.

But despite their WGA awards success, Gosford Park and A Beautiful Mind could still face tough competition at the Oscars from Memento and In the Bedroom.

These films were deemed ineligible for the WGA awards because they were not written under a contract governed by the guild.

The WGA's lifetime achievement award went to Blake Edwards, 79, writer of the Pink Panther movies, 10 and S.O.B.