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So, 13 nominations for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button was an impressive if perhaps expected haul, and included one for Best Visual Effects which considering the balls up that had been perpetrated on Zodiac was very welcome indeed. 

But today's Oscar nominations threw up a few surprises, not least The Reader picking up five noms, including Film, Director and Actress for Kate Winslet who had widely been tipped to be nominated for her role in Revolutionary Road, a film which managed only two in total, for Costume Design and Art Direction. And no nomination for Kristin Scott Thomas? What's that all about then...

Slumdog Millionaire was the other big winner, scoring 10 nominations, followed by Milk with eight, The Dark Knight with seven, and Frost/Nixon and The Reader on five apiece. 

It was great to see both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei nominated for The Wrestler even if the film didn't get anything else, not even for Bruce Springsteen for Best Song, Melissa Leo being recognised in the Best Actress category for Frozen River which also scored an Original Screenplay nomination for Courtney Hunt, Man On Wire up for Documentary Feature, Martin McDonagh recognised for his script for In Bruges and kudos to the Doubt mob who nabbed four acting nominations as well as an Adapted Screenplay one for John Patrick Shanley.

And it was another good year for the Brits, with Danny Boyle and Stephen Daldry picking up Directing noms, Working Title nabbing a Best Film for Frost/Nixon, The Duchess nabbing a handful of technicals, Simon Beaufoy getting an Adapted Screenplay nob for Slumdog, and Mike Leigh getting an Original Screenplay one for Happy-Go-Lucky.

Strange, though, that Waltz With Bashir gets nominated for Best Foreign Language Film but didn't warrant a Best Animated Feature nod. 

As for that early favourite, The Dark Knight picked up a host of technical nominations but, apart from Heath Ledger who was deservedly nominated for Best Supporting Actor and who died a year ago today, didn't feature in any of the major categories. 

Here are the nominations in full.

And how did I do? Well, I managed 19 1/2 from a possible 30 points which is about average for me for this kind of thing. No Eastwood. No Michael Sheen. No Sally Hawkins.