Films by Hollywood old boys Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese are the big hitters in the Academy Awards nominations, with fact-based tales also faring well, writes Michael Dwyer, Film Correspondent

After three years of domination by the Lord of the Rings trilogy, normal service was resumed and biopics swept the board again when the 77th Academy Awards were announced in Los Angeles yesterday. Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes film, The Aviator, leads the field with 11 nominations, followed by Marc Foster's Finding Neverland and Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby with seven each, Ray with six and Sideways with five.

The nominations marked a personal triumph for former winner Clint Eastwood, who took three nominations - as producer, director and lead actor of Million Dollar Baby - and for first-time nominee Jamie Foxx, who was shortlisted as best actor for Ray and best supporting actor for Collateral. And John Williams collected his 43rd nomination (for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), equalling the record set by fellow composer Alfred Newman.

Irish writer-director Terry George, from Belfast, was nominated with co-writer Keir Pearson in the best original screenplay category for Hotel Rwanda, a fact-based drama about the efforts of a Kigali hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina, to shelter and save 1,268 refugees at the onset of the genocidal conflict in Rwanda in 1994.

The film received two other major nominations - Don Cheadle as best actor and Sophie Okonedo as best supporting actress, for their portrayals of the hotel manager and his wife. It is Terry George's second film as a director following the 1996 H-Block hunger strikes drama, Some Mother's Son. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his collaboration with Jim Sheridan on the screenplay for In the Name of the Father.

In the category for best live-action short film, one of the five nominees is Gary McKendry's Everything In This Country Must, based on a short story by Colum McCann and set in Northern Ireland in 1985, when a teenage girl must choose between allegiance to her Catholic father and gratitude to the British soldiers who saved the family horse.

The nominations brought disappointment for Irish actor Liam Neeson, who had been hotly tipped for his riveting portrayal of the pioneering US sexologist Alfred Kinsey in Bill Condon's film Kinsey. The target of a conservative backlash in the US, the film also failed to collect a screenplay nomination even though it was regarded as a certainty for one; nor was there one for Peter Sarsgaard, a formidable contender in the best supporting actor category. The film's sole nominee is Laura Linney, who plays Kinsey's wife, Clara McMillen.

There were mixed fortunes for last year's two most controversial films. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ received three nominations - for cinematography, musical score and make-up. However, Michael Moore, who gambled on keeping his contentious Fahrenheit 9/11 out of the documentary category in the hope of getting a nomination for best picture, failed to be nominated in any category.

Here is how the contenders fared in the nine principal sections:

BEST PICTURE

The five films with the most nominations all make the list: The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, Sideways and Ray. In 18 of the past 20 years, the film with the most nominations has gone on to take the best picture Oscar, so history is on Martin Scorsese's side for The Aviator, but Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby could well steal the day.

The other three films are unlikely to make a significant impact in the voting for the premier prize.

BEST DIRECTOR

As in the best picture category, the race is down to two front-runners here - Clint Eastwood, who turns 75 in May and who won this award for Unforgiven in 1993, is arguably the only nominee who can stop Martin Scorsese from finally collecting his long-cherished first Oscar as best director. If Eastwood wins, it will be Scorsese's third time to be beaten to the award by an actor turned director - in 1981 his Raging Bull lost out to Robert Redford's Ordinary People, and Kevin Costner took the award for Dances With Wolves when Scorsese was up for GoodFellas in 1991.

Scorsese has also been nominated as best director for The Last Temptation of Christ (1989) and Gangs of New York (2003). The other nominees this year are Alexander Payne (Sideways), Taylor Hackford (Ray), and the only mild surprise, Mike Leigh (Vera Drake).

BEST ACTRESS

There were no surprises in this category. The only former Oscar winner to make the shortlist is Hilary Swank, who won five years ago for Boys Don't Cry, followed it with a succession of forgettable roles and now makes a dynamic comeback as the aspirant boxer in Million Dollar Baby. Annette Bening, who lost out to Swank when she was nominated for American Beauty, is on the list for her performance as an English stage diva in Being Julia.

An English stage actress generally relegated to supporting roles in movies, Imelda Staunton deservedly makes the list with her touching portrayal of a 1950s working-class Londoner who moonlights as a backstreet abortionist in Vera Drake. Another English actress, Kate Winslet, is nominated for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, as is Catalina Sandino Moreno, a newcomer from Bogota, for the low-budget Maria Full of Grace.

BEST ACTOR

None of the five nominees has won an acting Oscar, and four are nominated for playing real-life people. Jamie Foxx, the hot favourite to win, is on the list for his dynamic portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray, as are Johnny Depp as Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland, Leonardo DiCaprio as the young Howard Hughes in The Aviator, and Don Cheadle as the Kigali hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina, in Hotel Rwanda.

Clint Eastwood completes the list as the fictional Irish-American, Yeats-spouting boxing coach in his own film, Million Dollar Baby.

Among the surprise omissions in a very competitive category are Liam Neeson (for Kinsey), Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside) and Paul Giamatti (Sideways).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Surprisingly, Meryl Streep failed to make the cut for her robust performance in The Manchurian Candidate. Perhaps the electorate felt that, as the most nominated actor in the history of the Oscars, she just did not need another. Cate Blanchett is nominated for The Aviator, in which she delivers a vivacious portrayal of Katharine Hepburn (whose Oscar nominations record was broken by Streep).

Laura Linney makes the list for Kinsey, as does English actress Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), Virginia Madsen (Sideways) and Natalie Portman (Closer). None of the nominees is a former winner.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jamie Foxx's second nomination this year is in this category for Collateral. Alan Alda, who turns 69 on Friday, finally gets his first Oscar nomination, for The Aviator. Morgan Freeman, who is a year younger than Alda, gets his fourth nomination, for Million Dollar Baby. The list is completed by two first-time nominees, Clive Owen (Closer) and Thomas Haden Church (Sideways).

The biggest surprise is the exclusion of Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey). Other contenders included Peter O'Toole (Troy), James Garner (The Notebook) and young Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland).

BEST FOREIGN-LANGAUGE FILM

Three of the strongest likely contenders were deemed ineligible in this category - Bad Education, A Very Long Engagement and The Motorcycle Diaries - and the surprise omissions notably included House of Flying Daggers (China), The Keys to the House (Italy), The Far Side of the Moon (Canada) and Innocent Voices (Mexico).

As expected, The Sea Inside (Spain), Downfall (Germany) and Les Choristes (France) all made the short list, with the other places going to Yesterday (South Africa) and As It is in Heaven (Sweden).

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Ethan Hawke, a best supporting actor nominee for Training Day in 2001, shares a writing nomination for a sequel, Before Sunset, with his co-star Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater. However, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, who were nominated for their Election screenplay in 1991, are the front-runners this year for Sideways. The other nominees are Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby), David Magee (Finding Neverland) and Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries).

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Joining the Hotel Rwanda writing team of Terry George and Keir Pearson on the shortlist are Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, John Logan for The Aviator, Mike Leigh for Vera Drake and Brad Bird for Disney's animated feature, The Incredibles.

The 77th Academy Awards ceremony will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 27th