Twilight sucks up People’s Choice award nominations

It's unlikely to figure at next year's Oscars, but the Twilight Saga films, based on Stephenie Meyers's books about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire, look set to triumph where it really counts. The franchise leads the nominations for the 2010 People's Choice awards, with six nods.

Twilight is up for best actor, in the form of Robert Pattinson, who lines up alongside Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp and Ryan Reynolds. The film also gets a nod in the best actress (for Kristen Stewart), onscreen team, breakout actor (Taylor Lautner), movie franchise and favourite movie categories.

Star Trek, this summer's successful reinvention of the science fiction franchise, is in joint second spot with four nominations, including two for breakout actor for the new Kirk and Spock, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, thecritically-panned prequel to the Marvel comic-book series, also has four nods, including best onscreen team for Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Will.i.am, Dominic Monaghan and Daniel Henney.

The nominations bode well for the box-office performance of Twilight follow-up New Moon, out in the UK on 20 November. The first film raked in $383m (£230m) internationally last year.

The People's Choice gongs are decided by votes from the US public and have been running annually since 1975. Fans cast more than 18m votes online to select the nominees and will also choose the winners. The 2010 prizes will be conferred on 6 January.