Winners of the race for the best supporting actor nominations are: Matt Damon for "Invictus," Woody Harrelson for "The Messenger, " Christopher Plummer for "The Last Station," Stanley Tucci for " The Lovely Bones" and Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds." This is Damon's first nominations in 12 years. Waltz, a veteran Austrian character actor who only began his Hollywood career recently and played a vicious Nazi officer, is considered a front- runner.

 

The best supporting actress nominees were Penelope Cruz for " Nine," Vera Farmiga for "Up in the Air," Maggie Gyllenhaal for " Crazy Heart," Anna Kendrick for "Up in the Air" and Mo'Nique for " Precious: Based on the Novel`Push' by Sapphire." Mo'Nique has monopolized the critics' prizes lately, and this is her first shot into the Oscar.

 

Apart from its best-picture nomination, Pixar's 3D animated film "Up" was also nominated in the best animated feature film category. The other nominees in that category were: "Coraline," " Fantastic Mr. Fox," "The Princess and the Frog" and "The Secret of Kells."

 

For best adapted screenplay, the nominees were Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell for "District 9," Nick Hornby for "An Education, " Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Lannucci and Tony Roche for "In the Loop," Geoffrey Fletcher for "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire" and Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for "Up in the Air."

 

Nominated for best original screenplay were Mark Boal for "The Hurt Locker," Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds," Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman for "The Messenger," Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for "A Serious Man," and Bob Peterson and Pete Docter for "Up."

 

The best foreign language film nominees were "Ajami" from Israel, "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" from Argentina, "The Milk of Sorrow" from Peru, "Un Prophete" from France, and "The White Ribbon" from Germany.

 

The nominations were announced at 5:30 a.m. by actress Anne Hathaway and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

 

The Oscars will be handed out March 7 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will co-host the ceremony. ABC will telecast the ceremony.