It’s the most important moment of the moviemaking year – the moment when we find out which films from the past 12 months have been cherry picked by the Academy as potential Oscar winners.

12 Years a Slave, Gravity, American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street are among the movies that cleaned up with multiple nominations.

Elsewhere actresses Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence are tipped for individual awards.

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Regionally, gripping Palestinian movie Omar – which opened the Dubai International Film Festival in December – picked up a Best Foreign Film nod.

12 Years a Slave is currently the front-runner for best movie, while Alfonso Cuaron deserves to be the clear winner for Best Director, following his groundbreaking Gravity.

Matthew McConaughey is being tipped for best actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, while Cate Blanchett leads the ladies picks with Blue Jasmine.

Notable omissions include American Hustle in best make-up and wardobe (it looks fantastic), The Wolf of Wall Street in best editing (Scorsese's longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker is typically zippy form) - and the unsentimental absence of Idris Elba's portrayal of Nelson Mandela amongst the actor nominees.

Announced on Thursday January 16pm, around 5.40pm UAE time, below is a list of nominees in the main awards categories:

Best picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best director
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best actor
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Best supporting actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Best supporting actress
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska

Best animated feature
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest and Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises

Best adapted screenplay
Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke - Before Midnight
Billy Ray - Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope - Philomena
John Ridley - 12 Years a Slave
Terence Winter - The Wolf of Wall Street

Best original screenplay
Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell - American Hustle
Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine
Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack - Dallas Buyers Club
Spike Jonze - Her
Bob Nelson - Nebraska

Best foreign language film
The Broken Circle Breakdown
The Great Beauty
The Hunt
The Missing Picture
Omar

Best original song
Let It Go - Frozen
Ordinary Love - Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Alone Yet Not Alone - Alone Yet Not Alone
Happy - Despicable Me 2
The Moon Song - Her

Best Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
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