For the majority of movie watchers, the awards season finally wrapped up with last week's Academy Awards. But for the geek elite of the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres, the Oscars are just a distracting precursor to the main event on the film calendar - the 27th annual Saturn Awards.

Organised by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, the Saturns will be presented on June 12 at a black tie event at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Century City (the Spock ears, presumably, are optional). Last night's announcement of the nominees confirmed Bryan Singer's X-Men as this year's hot favourite. The acclaimed saga of misunderstood mutants with super powers claimed ten nominations, including Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actor (for Hugh Jackman), Best Supporting Actor (Patrick Stewart), Best Supporting Actress (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and Best Director (Singer).

In joint second place with eight nominations apiece lie two very different films, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Ron Howard's saccharine Christmas treat The Grinch. Gladiator, the overall victor in last week's Oscar showdown, lags in fourth place with seven nominations.