Academy Awards Nominations are finally here!

Lots of love for ‘The Reader’… Best Picture, DIrector, Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress… Holocaust movie always trumps (Along with the big push from Harvey Weinstein, it being one of the last screeners to be seen, and its producers, the late  Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack). The  most notable  snubs?  The omissions of ‘The Dark Knight’ – as was expected (Heath Ledger’s nomination was the film’s award) and  ‘Gran Torino’ and Clint Eastwood left off the major categories. ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ led Academy Awards contenders Thursday with 13 nominations.

Best Picture:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director:

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant, Milk
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:

Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Performance by an Actress in a Leading role:

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River – Hooray!
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:

Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Phil Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road – great, great performance!

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:

Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Adapted Screenplay:

Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
David Hare, The Reader
Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

Original Screenplay:

Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
Martin McMcDonough, In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Andrew Stanton, Wall-E

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year:

Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year:

Baader Meinhof Complex – Germany
The Class – France
Departures – Japan
Revanche – Austria
Waltz with Bashir – Israel

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center ®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network.

Read the whole list of nominations:

Achievement in Art Direction:

Changeling (Universal) Art Direction: James J. Murakami, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
The Duchess (Paramount Vantage, Pathà © and BBC Films) Art Direction: Michael Carlin, Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway
Revolutionary Road (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage) Art Direction: Kristi Zea, Set Decoration: Debra Schutt

Achievement in Cinematography:

Changeling (Universal) Tom Stern
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) Wally Pfister
The Reader (The Weinstein Company) Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Anthony Dod Mantle

Achievement in Costume Design:

Australia (20th Century Fox) Catherine Martin
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Jacqueline West
The Duchess (Paramount Vantage, Pathà © and BBC Films) Michael O’Connor
Milk (Focus Features) Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage) Albert Wolsky

Best Documentary Feature:

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) (Cinema Guild) A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
Encounters at the End of the World (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment) A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
The Garden (A Black Valley Films Production) Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Man on Wire (Magnolia Pictures) A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
Trouble the Water (Zeitgeist Films) An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Best Documentary Short Subject:

The Conscience of Nhem En (A Farallon Films Production) Steven Okazaki
The Final Inch (A Vermilion Films Production) Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
Smile Pinki (A Principe Production) Megan Mylan
The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306 (A Rock Paper Scissors Production) Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

Achievement in Film Editing:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) Lee Smith
Frost/Nixon (Universal) Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
Milk (Focus Features) Elliot Graham
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Chris Dickens

Achievement in Makeup:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Greg Cannom
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Universal) Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Achievement in Music written for Motion Pictures (Original score):

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Alexandre Desplat
Defiance (Paramount Vantage) James Newton Howard
Milk (Focus Features) Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) A.R. Rahman
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Thomas Newman

Achievement in Music written for Motion Pictures (Original song):

“Down to Earth” from WALL-E (Walt Disney) Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
“Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
“O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman andMaya Arulpragasam

Best Animated Short Film:

La Maison en Petits Cubes (A Robot Communications Production) Kunio Kato
Lavatory – Lovestory (A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production) Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi (Talantis Films) A Gobelins, L’Ã ©cole de l’image Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
Presto (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
This Way Up (A Nexus Production) Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

Best Live Action Short Film:

Auf der Strecke (On the Line) (Hamburg Shortfilmagency), An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production, Reto Caffi
Manon on the Asphalt (La Luna Productions), A La Luna Production, Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
New Boy (Network Ireland Television), A Zanzibar Films Production, Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
The Pig (An M & M Production) Tivi Magnusson and Dorte HÃ ¸gh
Spielzeugland (Toyland) A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank

Achievement in Sound Editing:

The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) Richard King
Iron Man (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment) Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Tom Sayers
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
Wanted (Universal) Wylie Stateman

Achievement in Sound Mixing:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
WALL-E (Walt Disney) Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
Wanted (Universal) Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaà ±o and Petr Forejt

Achievement in Visual Effects:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
(Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
The Dark Knight
(Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
Iron Man
(Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

From: Oscars.org