Paramount/Warner Bros co-venture The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button led the pack at the 81st annual Academy Award nominations announcement in Los Angeles with 13 nominations including best picture, best director and best actor for Brad Pitt. Only two films in Oscar history - All About Eve in 1950 and Titanic in 1997 - have been nominated 14 times.

For reactions,click here

But perhaps the favourite is still Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight in the domestic market), Danny Boyle's Indian crowdpleaser which scored 10 nominations including picture, director and screenplay. The UK-originated film also won three nominations for Indian music superstar AR Rahman in original score and two song categories as well as cinematography, editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

Gus Van Sant's much liked Milk (Focus Features) restored its luster after being snubbed by the Golden Globes, winning eight nominations including best picture, director, screenplay, actor for Sean Penn and supporting actor for Josh Brolin. It is Penn's fifth nomination and Brolin's first.

Also taking eight nominations was Warner's blockbuster The Dark Knight but the comic book epic failed to score in picture or director categories, instead taking seven of its nods in technical categories and one for Heath Ledger in the supporting actor category. Ledger is only the sixth actor to be nominated posthumously after James Dean, Spencer Tracy, Peter Finch, Ralph Richardson and Massimo Troisi.

Kate Winslet, who won two Golden Globes recently for Revolutionary Road and The Reader, was nominated for best actress in a leading role for The Reader even though distributor The Weinstein Company was pitching her in the supporting category. The Reader had a triumphant morning, taking nominations for picture, screenplay and director Stephen Daldry who, remarkably, has now been nominated for each of his first three films - the other two being Billy Elliot in 2000 and The Hours in 2002.

For Scott Rudin, who pulled his name off The Reader, it was a somewhat bittersweet morning. His two films - Doubt and Revolutionary Road - didn't get nominated for best picture or director, although Doubt won five nods, four for performances and one for John Patrick Shanley's screenplay. The acting nominees are Meryl Streep for best actress, Philip Seymour Hoffman for best supporting actor and both Amy Adams and Viola Davis for best supporting actress.

Revolutionary Road was cited in only three categories including Michael Shannon for best supporting actor.

It is Streep's 15th Academy Award nomination, taking her record as most nominated actor into new territory. And it is 33 year-old Winslet's sixth nomination, making her the youngest actor to score six nominations. Bette Davis was 34 when she won her sixth nomination for Now Voyager in 1942.

The final best picture nominee is Universal's Frost/Nixon from Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Films which took five nominations including best picture, director for Ron Howard, screenplay for Peter Morgan and actor for Frank Langella.

In the foreign language category, the nominees are Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex from Germany, Laurent Cantet's The Class from France, Yojiro Takita's Departures from Japan, Gotz Spielmann's Revanche from Austria and Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir from Israel. The four films which failed to make the final five from the nine-title shortlist are 3 Monkeys from Turkey, Everlasting Moments from Sweden, The Necessities Of Life from Canada and Tear This Heart Out from Mexico.

Although Mike Leigh won a nomination for best original screenplay for Happy-Go-Lucky, lead actress Sally Hawkins didn't make the final five, despite multiple critics awards and a Golden Globe win earlier this month.

Other actors who didn't win Oscar favour were Ralph Fiennes, although his three supporting roles in In Bruges, The Duchess and The Reader, might have split the voters and Kristin Scott Thomas, considered a contender for her French film I've Loved You So Long.

And even though he had two films in the running this year, Clint Eastwood was shut out for Gran Torino and Changeling, even though his Changeling star Angelina Jolie won a best actress nomination.

Making the grade for the first time were two indie favourites - Richard Jenkins, nominated for best actor in The Visitor, and Melissa Leo, nominated for best actress for Frozen River.

Mickey Rourke, who won the Golden Globe for best actor, also made the grade although The Wrestler only scored one other nomination for Marisa Tomei's supporting performance. It is Tomei's third nomination.

The animated feature nominees were Bolt, Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E. The last won a further five nominations for original screenplay, music score, song ('Down To Earth' by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman), sound mixing and sound editing.

Documentary feature nominees were The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath, Encounters At The End Of The World from Werner Herzog, The Garden from Scott Hamilton Kennedy, Man On Wire from James Marsh and Trouble The Water from Tia Lessin and Carl Deal.

The studio with the most nominations was Paramount, including Paramount Vantage and DreamWorks releases, with a total of 22 nominations.

Warner Bros scored 21, not counting its involvement as a partner in Slumdog Millionaire, while Universal and Focus had 20.

Click title to see Screen Review

Best Picture

Slumdog Millionaire

Milk

Frost/Nixon

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The Reader

Best Director

Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

David Fincher - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon

Stephen Daldry -The Reader

Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best Original Screenplay

Dustin Lance Black - Milk

Martin McDonagh - In Bruges

Courtney Hunt - Frozen River

Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky

Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter - Wall-E

Best Adapted Screenplay

Eric Roth, Robin Swicord - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon

John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

David Hare - The Reader

Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor In A Leading Role

Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn- Milk

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Brad Pitt- The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Richard Jenkins - The Visitor

Best Actress In A Leading Role

Anne Hathaway - Rachel's Getting Married

Meryl Streep - Doubt

Angelina Jolie - Changeling

Kate Winslet - The Reader

Melissa Leo - - Frozen River

Best Actor In A Supporting Role

Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Josh Brolin- Milk

Philip Seymour Hoffman- Doubt

Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder

Michael Shannon- Revolutionary Road

Best Actress In A Supporting Role

Amy Adams - Doubt

Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Viola Davis - Doubt

Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Best Animated Film

Bolt

Kung Fu Panda

Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film

The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)

Revanche (Austria)

The Class (France)

Departures (Japan)

Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

Best Documentary Feature

Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath - The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)


Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser - Encounters At The End Of The World


Scott Hamilton Kennedy - The Garden


James Marsh and Simon Chinn- Man On Wire


Tia Lessin and Carl Deal - Trouble The Water

Best Documentary Short Subject

Steven Okazaki - The Conscience Of Nhem En

Irene Taylor Brodsky, Tom Grant Smile Pink iMegan Mylan - The Final Inch

Adam Pertofsky, Margaret Hyde - The Witness From The Balcony Of Room 306

Best Art Direction

James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis - Changeling

Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo -The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando - The Dark Knight

Michael Carlin, Rebecca Alleway - The Duchess

Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt - Revolutionary Road

Best Cinematography

Tom Stern -Changeling

Claudio Miranda - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Wally Pfister - The Dark Knight

Chris Menges, Roger Deakins - The Reader

Anthony Dod Mantle - Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design

Catherine Martin -Australia

Jacqueline West- The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Michael O'Connor - The Duchess

Danny Glicker - Milk

Albert Wolsky - Revolutionary Road

Film Editing

Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Lee Smith - The Dark Knight

Mike Hill, Dan Hanley - Frost/Nixon

Elliot Graham - Milk

Chris Dickens - Slumdog Millionaire

Makeup

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Music (Score)

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Defiance

Milk

Slumdog Millionaire

Wall-E

Music (Song)

Down To Earth - Wall-E

Jai Ho-Slumdog Millionaire

O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire

Short Film (Animated)

La Maison En Petits Cubes

Lavatory - Lovestory

Oktapodi

Presto

This Way Up

Short Film (Live Action)

On The Line (Auf Der Strecke)

Manon On The Asphalt

New Boy

The Pig

Toyland (Spielzeugland)

Sound Editing

The Dark Knight

Iron Man

Slumdog Millionaire

Wall-E

Wanted

Sound Mixing

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Slumdog Millionaire

Wall-E

Wanted

Visual Effects

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Iron Man