The 82nd, or the 2009, Academy Award nominees have been announced, and the list has some unsurprising entries, for example Avatar (Filmstalker review) has nine nominations - only nine for the most successful film of all time you might think? Well it's the same number as The Hurt Locker (Filmstalker review), and some might find that surprising too.

However looking through the lists there are a lot of names and titles that aren't surprising if you've been following the awards announcements to date.

So let's go through them and I'll tell you what I think are going to be the key winners, and hopefully spark some debate.

First up, let's look at the talent in front of the screen:

Actor
Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
George Clooney - Up in the Air (Filmstalker review)
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus (Filmstalker review)
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker (Filmstalker review),

Supporting Actor
Matt Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Actress
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 & Julia

Supporting Actress
Penélope 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

I'm thinking that Actor is going to go to Jeff Bridges here, although there's the potential for both George Clooney and Morgan Freeman to pop in with a late rush, but I'm thinking Bridges considering the number of other nominations he's been getting.

Supporting Actor is easier if we're talking nominations, and that's Christoph Waltz, despite having seen Matt Damon and Stanley Tucci both giving great performances and imagining Christopher Plummer acting sublimely as always.

Actress is a lot harder though, and the awards to date have been a bit mixed, I'd struggle to call it between Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, but I think there's something whispering to me that it's going to be neither.

With supporting actress it's easier and I think that's going to Mo'Nique.

Now let's move on to the films themselves:

Best Film
Avatar (Filmstalker review).
The Blind Side
District 9 (Filmstalker review)
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds (Filmstalker review)
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Foreign Language Film
Ajami - Israel
El Secreto de Sus Ojos - Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow - Peru
Un Prophète - France
The White Ribbon - Germany

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

Animated Feature
Coraline - Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson
The Princess and the Frog - John Musker and Ron Clements
The Secret of Kells - Tomm Moore
Up - Pete Docter

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 à la Berlin

Animated Short
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

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

Is the real reason that there are so many Film nominations to cover the fact that it's really a two horse race? The Hurt Locker or Avatar in my mind, and as much as I like to think The Hurt Locker was a great film, the sheer accomplishment of Avatar through every aspect of film-making means it deserves this award undoubtedly.

I would love Coraline to take the Animation title, but I don't think it will. As for Documentary I think that's going to The Cove, surely?

I do believe that White Ribbon will take Foreign Language Film without much trouble.

Now let's go to the talent behind the camera with the big one first:

Director
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

Adapted Screenplay
District 9 - Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
An Education - Screenplay by Nick Hornby
In the Loop - Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air - Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker - Written by Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds - Written by Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger - Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
A Serious Man - Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Up - Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter
Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Cinematography
Avatar - Mauro Fiore
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Bruno Delbonnel
The Hurt Locker - Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds - Robert Richardson
The White Ribbon - Christian Berger

Visual Effects
Avatar - Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
District 9 - Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
Star Trek - Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Art Direction
Avatar
Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg
Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro
Set Decoration: Caroline Smith

Nine
Art Direction: John Myhre
Set Decoration: Gordon Sim

Sherlock Holmes
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

The Young Victoria
Art Direction: Patrice Vermette
Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Costume Design
Bright Star - Janet Patterson
Coco before Chanel - Catherine Leterrier
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Monique Prudhomme
Nine - Colleen Atwood
The Young Victoria - Sandy Powell

Editing
Avatar - Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
District 9 - Julian Clarke
The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
Inglourious Basterds - Sally Menke
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Joe Klotz

Make-up
Il Divo - Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
Star Trek - Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
The Young Victoria - Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music: Original score
Avatar - James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes - Hans Zimmer
Up - Michael Giacchino

Music: Original song
Almost There from The Princess and the Frog - Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog - Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname from Paris 36 - Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyrics by Frank Thomas
Take It All from Nine - Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston
The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart - Music and Lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Sound Editing
Avatar - Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson
Inglourious Basterds - Wylie Stateman
Star Trek - Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
Up - Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing
Avatar - Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
Inglourious Basterds - Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
Star Trek - Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

It's not a vast leap to assume that Kathryn Bigelow is going to take the Director award is it? Saying that though, the work involved in directing Avatar to become the biggest film ever has got to be one hell of a feat. Just consider what directing means in a film nowadays, or what James Cameron directing Avatar meant.

Screenplays I'd have to say Up in the Air (Filmstalker review) and The Hurt Locker, they just out classed the competition in my eyes.

I think Avatar may well pick up Cinematography and Visual Effects, again I'm sure that I'm going to get some stick for that choice too!

Actually why don't I stop and hand over to you and see what you think of the Academy Award nominees.

Wait a minute though...where's Moon (Filmstalker review)? To name but one of the titles missing from this list - can you see any more holes?