Two very different films head up the nominations for the 2010 Academy Awards, as announced this morning in Los Angeles. Kathryn Bigelow’s war drama The Hurt Locker and James Cameron’s Avatar each have 9 nominations; both are nominated in the enlarged Best Picture category, and both filmmakers appear in the Best Director list. It will be a pretty interesting result, particularly seeing as Bigelow and Cameron were married from 1989 to 1991.

It’s a solid year for British acting talent too; Carey Mulligan and Helen Mirren are both nominated for Best Actress, for An Education and The Last Station respectively, and Colin Firth is up for Best Actor for his career-best performance in A Single Man.

Nominees for the major awards are as follows:

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

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

Best 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 and Julia)

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope 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)

Best Animated Film
Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Princess and the Frog, Up, The Secret of Kells

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

Best Director
James Cameron (Avatar), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Lee Daniels (Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire), Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

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

Best Film Editing
Stephen Rivkin, John Refousa and James Cameron (Avatar), Julian Clarke (District 9), Bob Murawski and Chris Innis (The Hurt Locker), Sally Menke (Inglourious Basterds), Joe Klotz (Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire)

Best Foreign Language Film
Ajami (Israel), El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina), The Milk of Sorrow (Peru), A Prophet (France), The White Ribbon (Germany)

Best 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)

Best Picture
Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air

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

Best Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal), Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino), The Messenger (Alessando Camon & Oren Moverman), A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen), Up (Bob Peterson & Pete Docter