It's the time of year again when the Oscar hype machine will go into overdrive in the period between the nominations being announced and the ceremony itself.

This year there are two films which are ahead of the rest, and two films which are total contrasts in style. James Cameron has continued to astound everyone by getting a nomination for best picture and best director, and his film Avatar has managed nine nomination in total with the others being in the technical department.

Kathryn Bigelow's (who happens to be Camerons ex-wife) The Hurt Locker has also managed nine nominations, best picture and best director being two of then, the picture has also got a nomination for it's star Jeremy Renner as a leading actor.

The best picture category this year include 10 films (is that too many) so we have the likes of The Blind Side and Inglourious Basterds along side British hopeful An Education as well as South African sci-fi film District 9, and a first in that Up is nominated for best film and best animated film.

Best film and director is going to be a battle between Cameron and Bigelow, but the rest of the awards are an open field, so lets wait and see what heppens on March 7th at the 82nd Academy Awards Ceremony.

Heres a list of the nominations, or check out the website.

BEST DIRECTOR

James Cameron, Avatar
Katherine Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarentino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up In The Air

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up In The Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

BEST PICTURE

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up In the Air

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Neil Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell, District 9
Neil Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, In The Loop
Geofrey Fletcher, Precious
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up In The Air

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Mark Boall, The Hurt locker
Quentin Tarentino, Inglourious Basterds
Joel And Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Up

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

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

Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

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

Documentary Short
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

Film Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
INglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Foreign Language Film
Ajami
El Secreto
Desus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Make-Up
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Music: Original Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Music: Original Song
The Princess and The Frog – Almost There
The Princess and the Frog – Down In New Orleans
Paris 36 – Loin de Panane
Nine – Take It All
Crazy Heart – The Weary Kind

Short Film: Animated
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady And The Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

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

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

Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Today (Thursday 21st January) BAFTA, the British Film Association awards, has announced it's nominations for the awards ceremony taking place in London on 21st February.

The all important best film of the year award is a race between Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Precious and Up In The Air and An Education also appears in the nomination for best British film along with Fish Tank, In The loop, Moon and Nowhere Boy.

Like the Golden Globe Awards the BAFTA's are seen as a pre-curser to the Oscars and in the directing category I can see the list being very similar as James Cameron (Avatar), Neill Blomkamp (District 9), Lone Scherfig (An Education), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) all get nods, it's good to see Neill Blomkamp in there.

The best actor and actress categories are similar to the expectation for the Oscars as well with Jeff bridges who just won the Golden Globe leading the field for the men with George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeremy Renner and Any Sirkis all getting a mention. The actress category is led by Carey Mulligan along with Saoirse Ronan, Gabourey Sidibe and of course Meryl Streep.

We'll find out in a months time who walks away with the awards in a ceremony hosted by TV favourite Jonathan Ross.

For a full list of nomination check out the BAFTA website.

It's that time of year, it's December and just ahead of the awards ceremony the best of the years are starting to appear, and today the American Film Institute (AFI) have announced what they believe are the top films of 2009, and it makes for interesting reading.

The list is as follows:
Precious
The Hurt Locker
Coraline
The Messenger
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Sugar
Up in the Air
The Hangover
Up