Oscar 2011 nominations are announced

The nominations for this year’s Oscars have officially been unveiled by Academy President Tom Sherak and last year's supporting actress winner Mo’Nique.

In a strong year for cinema, the big nominees are essentially the ones we all expected, with The King’s Speech, The Social Network, True Grit and The Kids Are All Right all receiving nominations across numerous categories.

The King’s Speech earned itself 12 nominations, ahead of True Grit 's 10, The Social Network's 8 and The Fighter's 7 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Support Actor (Geoffrey Rush) and Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter) and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler).

Meanwhile, Darren Aronofsky should be having a good day, considering he’s just been given his first ever Oscar nomination for Black Swan in the Best Director category.

Aronofsky's film is also up for Best Picture – as is his star, Natalie Portman, for Best Actress.

The Best Director category is probably the coolest of all time - save for Christopher Nolan's omission.

We were also shocked to see Andrew Garfield's brilliant supporting Social Network turn snubbed, and we're still not sure how Ryan Gosling missed out on a Best Actor nod for his stunning Blue Valentine performance.

Still, there is good news. In the animated stakes, Toy story 3 had been nominated for both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature. It's sure to get one of them.

And we're very happy to see one of our cult favourites Dogtooth pop up in the Best Foreign Film category.

The winners will be announced on 27 February.

Here's the full list of nominees so far...

Best Actor
Javier Bardem - Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco - 127 hours

Best Actress
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David O. Russell – The Fighter
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David Fincher – The Social Network
The Coens – True Grit

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner - The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

Best Original Screenplay
Mike Leigh - Another Year
David Seidler - The King's Speech
Chris Nolan - Inception
Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg– The Kids Are All Right
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson – The Fighter

Best Adapted Screenplay
Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy - 127 hours
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network
Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich – Toy Story 3
The Coens - True Grit
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini - Winter’s Bone

Best Foreign Film
Biutiful
Dogtooth
In A Better World
Incendies
Outside The Law

Best Animated Feature
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3