Full list of Academy Award nominations I Chief film critic James Christopher's verdict

Kate Winslet is up for a Best Actress Oscar after being nominated today for her role as a former concentration camp guard in Stephen Daldry's film The Reader.

The film was also nominated as Best Picture, up against The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which Brad Pitt plays a man who ages backward, and Slumdog Millionaire, the tale of an impoverished orphan’s improbable victory on an Indian television game show.

The nominations were announced today in a ceremony hosted by the Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker at Hollywood's Samuel Goldwin Theatre, owned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Benjamin Button leads the field with 13 nominations, against 10 for Slumdog Millionaire, including a best director nod for Danny Boyle.

Slumdog has already won a clutch of Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards and also received 11 Bafta nominations. In the Best Picture category it is also up against the Gus van Sant film Milk, in which Sean Penn stars as California's first open gay public official.

Exactly a year to the day after he died of an accidental drug overdose, the Australian actor Heath Ledger was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. Despite its runaway success, the Batman blockbuster has been shut out for other top categories, such as best picture and director.

Meryl Streep, already the all-time acting Oscar record holder with 14 nominations, landed her 15th, as Best Actress for Doubt, in which she plays a vindictive nun.

Winslet, who won the Goldenm Globe for Best Actress for Revolutionary Road and Supporting Actress for The Reader, is nominated in both in the Best Actress category at the Bafta. Today's Oscar nomination is her sixth, although she has never won.

Winslet became the object of some ridicule this month, especially back home, for a tearful and incoherent acceptance speech after winning the Best Actress Globe, an award she did not expect. She promised to prepare a speech if she was nominated for an Oscar, to prevent a repeat performance.

The actress has come a long way since starring opposite the Honey Monster in an TV advert for breakfast cereal. That job, when she was 11, was her professional debut but she came from a family who were used to performing.

Both her parents - father Roger and mother Sally - were actors and her grandparents ran a theatre in her home town of Reading, Berkshire.

After attending drama school, she got her first big break when she was cast, aged 17, as an obsessive, murderous teenager in Heavenly Creatures. A year later, her role in the period drama Sense and Sensibility, won critical acclaim.

She hit the Hollywood big time with her role in the blockbuster Titanic opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, a performance recognised by the Academy with a nomination for the Oscar for best actress but not by an actual statuette.

Winslet will battle it out against Streep, Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married, Angelina Jolie for Changeling and Melissa Leo for Frozen River.

Boyle and Daldry will compete in the Best Director category against Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon, Van Sant for Milk and David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, could both walk off with Oscars, with Pitt in the running for Best Actor for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

The leading actor category also includes Mickey Rourke for his powerful comeback performance in The Wrestler, Richard Jenkins for The Visitor, Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon and Penn for Milk.

The Oscar winners will be announced on February 22.

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