So who's in the frame for an Oscar?

Its eight nominations include best film, best supporting actor for Jake Gyllenhaal and best supporting actress for Michelle Williams.

The Johnny Cash biography Walk the Line, earned best actor and actress nominations for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

George Clooney picked up two nominations, as supporting actor for his role in Syriana and best director for Good Night and Good Luck.

Brokeback Mountain has also scored a best actor nomination for Heath Ledger and best director for Ang Lee, plus best adapted screenplay for Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for their interpretation of Annie Proulx's short story.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is nominated for best animation.

Leading the way for the UK, the 2006 Awards see the first Oscar nomination for 20-year-old Keira Knightley in the best actress category for playing Lizzie Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and the fifth for Dame Judi, 71, who won best actress in 1999 for Shakespeare In Love. She is nominated for Mrs Henderson Presents.

They face stiff competition - not only from Reese Witherspoon - but also Charlize Theron in mining drama North Country, and the hotly tipped Felicity Huffman playing a transsexual in Transamerica.

In the best supporting actress category, Rachel Weisz is one of the favourites to win after scooping a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as activist Tessa Quayle in the adaptation of John Le Carre's The Constant Gardener.

Dame Judi said of her nomination: "It's wonderful. I'm absolutely thrilled. I'm so happy to be nominated for something I loved filming every single day."

In Mrs Henderson Presents she plays Laura Henderson, a society lady who bought Soho's Windmill Theatre in the 1930s and staged nude revues. At the Golden Globes she was also up against Keira Knightley, but both were beaten to the best actress prize by Reese Witherspoon.

Top nominations for the Academy Awards

Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, Munich.

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote; Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow; Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain; Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line; David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck.

Best Actress: Judi Dench, Mrs Henderson Presents; Felicity Huffman, Transamerica; Keira Knightley, Pride and Prejudice; Charlize Theron, North Country; Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line.

Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney, Syriana; Matt Dillon, Crash; Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man; Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain; William Hurt, A History of Violence.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, Junebug; Catherine Keener, Capote; Frances McDormand, North Country; Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener; Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain.

Best Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain; Bennett Miller, Capote; Paul Haggis, Crash; George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck; Steven Spielberg, Munich.

Best Foreign Film: Don't Tell, Italy; Joyeux Noel, France; Paradise Now, Palestine; Sophie Scholl - The Final Days, Germany; Tsotsi, South Africa.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain; Dan Futterman, Capote; Jeffrey Caine, The Constant Gardener; Josh Olson, A History of Violence; Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, Munich.

Best Original Screenplay: Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, Crash; George Clooney and Grant Heslov, Good Night, and Good Luck; Woody Allen, Match Point; Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale; Stephen Gaghan, Syriana.

Best Animated Feature Film: Howl's Moving Castle; Tim Burton's Corpse Bride; Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Best Original Score: Brokeback Mountain, Gustavo Santaolalla; The Constant Gardener, Alberto Iglesias; Memoirs of a Geisha, John Williams; Munich, John Williams; Pride & Prejudice, Dario Marianelli.

Best Original Song: In the Deep from Crash, Kathleen Bird York and Michael Becker; It's Hard out Here for a Pimp from Hustle & Flow, Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard; Travellin' Thru from Transamerica, Dolly Parton.