Hugo, The Artist head Oscar nominations

Two nostalgic films that pay tribute to the origins of cinema head the list of nominees for this year’s Hollywood Oscars.

Martin Scorcese’s technically dazzling 3D production Hugo has 11 nominations, including best film and best directing, while France’s acclaimed The Artist has 10, including best film, best actor (Jean Dujardin), best supporting actress (Bérénice Bejo) and best directing (Michel Hazanavicius).

Hugo is set in a Paris railway station in the 1930s and explores the early days of film-making from a child’s point of view. In contrast, The Artist is a low budget, black and white, almost entirely silent movie. It is only the second such film to be nominated for an Oscar and tells the story of an actor going into decline as silent films give way to "talkies" in the 1930s.

On present form, The Artist (due for NZ release on Feb 9) looks a likely winner, with Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Terrence Mallick’s The Tree of Life the other main contenders among the nine selected.

They include one surprise, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a 9-11 drama that has attracted little attention, as well as Steven Spielberg's War Horse and The Help.

Comedies have again missed the cut, with Bridesmaids being nominated only in best supporting actress and original screenplay categories.

Also dipping out are the action-thriller Drive and We Need to Talk About Kevin, starring Tilda Swinton.

Meryl Streep’s superb performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady gives her a chance to win a third Oscar. She is now the most-naminated of any actor but iis up against another veteran, Glenn Close, who plays a transgender role in Albert Nobbs.

The best actor race is more open with Dujardin facing strong competition from George Clooney (The Descendants), Brad Pitt (for Moneyball but not The Tree of Life) and Gary Oldman as the master spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The highly-prized best directing Oscar is the tightest in years, with Scorcese up against Hazanavicius as well as Allen, Mallick and Alexander Payne (The Descendants).

Sir Peter Jackson’s co-produced The Adventures of Tintin was overlooked for the animated film category and is up only for best original music score.

However, New Zealand stands to win honours for best original song with Brett McKenzie’s “Man or Muppett,” which has only one rival in the category.

Wellington studio Weta is nominated in the visual effects category for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Iran’s A Separation, which showed at last year’s NZ International Film Festival, is a shoo-in for best foreign language film.

• The awards will be presented on Monday, February 27 (NZ time).