The Hurt Locker
It may be 5.30am in Hollywood but Anne Hathaway was up bright and early to announce this year's Oscar nominations.
And Kathryn Bigelow is going head to head with ex-husband James Cameron's Avatar as they both got nine nominations a piece.
The Hurt Locker has dominated the awards circuit so far this year but missed out on the Best Movie and the Best Director Golden Globe, both of which went to Avatar.
The pair once again find themselves in the extended Best Picture category and both are up for Best Director.
This year, for the very first time, ten movies will compete for the Best Picture prize. animation movie Up finds itself amongst the contenders as does British movie An Education.
Sci-fi spectacular District 9 also finds itself in the running as does The Blind Side and A Serious Man.
Jeff Bridges remains the smoking hot favourite to scoop Best Actor for his performance in Crazy Heart and he is joined by George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Colin Firth and a somewhat surprise nod for Jeremy Renner.
Renner has burst onto the scene with Iraq drama The Hurt Locker and has been picking up Best Breakthrough gongs left right and centre.
Colin Firth may be flying the British flag in the Best Actor category but two actresses, in the form of Carey Mulligan and Helen Mirren have been nominated for Best Actress.
They will be joined by Sandra Bullock, who has picked up the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild for The Blind Side, Gabourey Sidibe for Precious and Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia.
Best Supporting Actress also threw up a couple of shock nominations as Diane Kruger and Maggie Gyllenhaal were both nominated for Inglourious Basterds and Crazy Heart.
Mo'Nique, Vera Farmiga and Penelope Cruz have all been battling it out during the awards season and Mo'Nique is the favourite to walk away with the award.
There was more success for Inglorious Basterds in Best Supporting Actor as Christoph Waltz picked up yet another nomination for his performance.
It was good new all round for Basterds as Quentin Tarantino scooped a Best Director nod as well as being recognised for Best Original Screenplay.
There were no surprises in the Best Director category as Cameron, Bigelow, Tarantino, Lee Daniels and Jason Reitman were all nominated once again.
Up is the smoking hit favourite to walk away with Best Animated feature and it's great to see it recognised in the Best Picture category.
However the animation category is very strong this year with Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Princess and the Frog and Secret of Kells all bagging nominations.
Despite all the awards talk surrounding Invictus back in September the movie only picked up two major nominations for Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon's performances.
The Lovely Bones is another movie that has been overlooked with Stanley Tucci securing the only big nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
List of nominees:
Best picture
Avatar (James Cameron director; Brooke Breton , Laeta Kalogridis, Jon Landau, Josh McLaglen, Janace Tashjian, Peter M Tobyansen, Colin Wilson producers)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp director, Bill Block, Philippa Boyens, Carolynne Cunningham, Elliot Ferwerda, Paul Hanson, Peter Jackson, Ken Kamins, Michael S Murphey producers)
An Education (Lone Scherfig)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Precious (Lee Daniels)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
The Blind Side (John Lee Hancock)
Up
Actress in a supporting role
Mo'Nique in Precious
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Actor in a supporting role
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson in The Messengers
Actor in a leading role
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker
Actress in a leading role
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia in It's Complicated
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Animated feature film
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)
The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)
Coraline (Henry Selick)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)
Secret of Kells
Foreign language film
Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)
The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)
Directing
Avatar (James Cameron)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
Writing (adapted screenplay)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin and Tony Roche)
Writing (original screenplay)
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)
The Oscars are announced 7th March.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in The Oscars