Leading the 81st Annual Academy Awards nominations list is the movie “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” with 13 nominations including the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson) and Best Director (David Fincher).

While Brad Pitt was nominated for Best Actor, Angelina Jolie got the Best Actress (“Changeling“) nomination facing some serious opponents like Kate Winslet and Anne Hathaway. As for the Best Picture, we predict the Oscar winner should be “Slumdog Millionaire“.

As expected actor Heath Ledger got a postmortem nomination on the one-year anniversary of his tragic death for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

Actor and previous academy award winner Forest Whitaker and movie producer Sid Ganis had the privilege to announce the 81st Academy Award Oscar Nominations at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Complete List of the 2009 Oscar Nominees Below

Best picture nominees:
Slumdog Millionaire
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Reader

Best actor nominees:
Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)
Sean Penn (Milk)
Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Best actress nominees:
Kate Winslet (The Reader)
Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
Melissa Leo (Frozen River)

Best supporting actor nominees:
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Josh Brolin (Milk)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt)
Robert Downey Jr (Tropic Thunder)
Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)

Best supporting actress nominees:
Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Viola Davis (Doubt)
Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)
Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Amy Adams (Doubt)

Best director nominees:
Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Stephen Daldry (The Reader)
Gus Van Sant (Milk)
Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)

Best foreign language film of the year:
The Baader Meinhof Complex, Germany
The Class, France
Departures, Japan
Revanche, Austria
Waltz with Bashir, Israel

Best adapted screenplay:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, screenplay by Eric Roth, screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Doubt, written by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, screenplay by Peter Morgan
The Reader, screenplay by David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire, screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Original screenplay:
Frozen River, written by Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky, written by Mike Leigh
In Bruges, written by Martin McDonagh
Milk, written by Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E, screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

Best animated feature film:
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

Best art direction:
Changeling
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Best cinematography:
Changeling
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best sound mixing:
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Best sound editing:
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Best original score:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Alexandre Desplat
Defiance - James Newton Howard
Milk - Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman
WALL-E - Thomas Newman

Best original song:
Down to Earth from WALL-E, music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, lyric by Peter Gabriel
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, music by A.R. Rahman, lyric by Gulzar
O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire, music and lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

Best costume:
Australia
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Best documentary feature:
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

Best documentary (short subject):
The Conscience of Nhem En,
The Final Inch,
Smile Pinki,
The Witness - From The Balcony Of Room 306.

Best film editing:
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Best makeup:
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button,
The Dark Knight,
Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Best animated short film:
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

Best live action short film:
Auf Der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon On The Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Best visual effects:
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

[images: WENN]