Avatar, Hurt Locker lead Oscar noms

Fantasy Avatar and war movie The Hurt Locker have claimed nine Oscar nominations each, including best film, pitting the two against one another as front-runners for the world's highest film honours.

The contrast between the two presents several intriguing elements. Avatar director James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, his ex-wife and director of Hurt Locker, will compete against each other in the category for best director.

Avatar is a big-budget science-fiction space adventure from major studio 20th Century Fox with a global box office haul over $2 billion. It is the highest-grossing movie of all time - second is Cameron's blockbuster Titanic.

Hurt Locker is a low-budget film about soldiers who defuse bombs in Iraq made by independent Summit Entertainment, and its worldwide ticket sales stand at a mere $16 million.

"I was surprised at the number of nominations and very grateful," said Hurt Locker writer and producer Mark Boal. "When a film gets nominated in nine different categories, you just have to take it as a huge compliment."

Bigelow's nomination was a rarity. Only three other women, including Sofia Coppola for 2003's Lost in Translation, have been nominated for best director in the 80-plus years since the Oscars have been bestowed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. No woman has ever won.

Only one nod behind Avatar and Hurt Locker is Quentin Tarantino's World War Two fantasy, Inglourious Basterds, also in the best film and best director race.

"Eight nominations, that's huge. We couldn't be happier, said Inglourious producer Lawrence Bender.

BREAKS FROM TRADITION

In a break from the past, Academy voters this year expanded the field of best film nominees from five movies to 10 to boost competitiveness but many pundits said the race, as of Tuesday, boiled down to Avatar and Hurt Locker.

"We have a classic David and Goliath matchup between the biggest movie in history and a film that ... had no stars and is about Iraq, which is a cursed subject at the Oscars," said Tom O'Neil, veteran awards watcher with TheEnvelope.com.

Joining them was Disney animated movie Up, about an elderly man on the adventure of a lifetime. It is only the second animated film behind 1991's Beauty and the Beast to earn a nod for best picture and along with that, also earned a nomination for best animated movie.

Also in the running for best film are corporate downsizing tale Up in the Air and urban drama Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, with six nominations each.

South African sci-fi film District 9 also made the best film list in a rarity. Only two other sci-fi films had been nominated for best movie before it and Avatar: Star Wars and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial.

Rounding out the best film field was coming-of-age tale An Education and football flick The Blind Side, which garnered Sandra Bullock a best actress nod in a year in which she has already claimed Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards.

"Who would have thought after all these years that I would be experiencing this moment now ... I certainly didn't," Bullock said in a statement.

STREEP MAKES HISTORY

Meryl Streep's performance in Julie & Julia resulted in her 16th Oscar nomination, including a 13th for lead actress. She passed Katharine Hepburn with 12 to become the most-nominated lead actress in Oscar history.

Joining Streep, who played chef Julia Child in Julie & Julia and Bullock as a wealthy woman who helps a homeless boy become a sports star, on the list of best actress nominees were Helen Mirren in The Last Station, Carey Mulligan for An Education and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe in Precious.

A best actor nod went to Jeff Bridges as a drunk country singer in Crazy Heart, and like Bullock, he won the recent Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for the same role.

He will compete against George Clooney as a corporate hatchet man in Up in the Air, Jeremy Renner as a bomb specialist in The Hurt Locker, Colin Firth for A Single Man and Morgan Freeman for Invictus.

The 82nd Academy Awards full list of nominees:

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Matt Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Meryl Streep - Julie and Julia

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Penelope Cruz - Nine
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Achievement in Art Direction:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Achievement in Cinematography:
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Achievement in Costume Design:
Bright Star
Coco before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Achievement in Directing:
Avatar - James Cameron
The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Lee Daniels
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman

Best Documentary Feature:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Documentary Short Subject:
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan, Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin

Achievement in Film Editing:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year:
Ajami - Israel
El Secreto de Sus Ojos - Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow - Peru
Un Prophete - France
The White Ribbon- Germany

Achievement in Make-up:
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score):
Avatar
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song):
Almost There from The Princess and the Frog
Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog
Loin de Paname from Paris 36
Take It All from Nine
The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart

Best Motion Picture of the Year:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
 
Best Animated Short Film:
French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live Action Short Film:
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Achievement in Sound Editing:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Achievement in Sound Mixing:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Achievement in Visual Effects:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Adapted Screenplay:
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Up in the Air

Original Screenplay:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

- Reuters