Nominations for the 75th Academy Awards are due to be announced in Los Angeles early on Tuesday, with Chicago, The Hours and Gangs of New York expected to dominate.

Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have been locked in a secret all-night session, with the nominations due at 0530 (1330 GMT).

The Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters was subject to tight security, with all phones and faxes cut off to avoid leaks during final deliberations.

Kidman hopes

Jazz musical Chicago has already done well at the Golden Globes, winning three awards including acting prizes for its lead stars Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere.

British director Stephen Daldry's The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman as the writer Virginia Woolf, won best film and best actress at the Globes.

The Hours is expected to win a nomination

Kidman missed out on an Oscar last year for her role in the musical Moulin Rouge, and is hotly tipped to do well this year.

And Gangs of New York, about the warring Irish and Italian gangs in 19th-Century Manhattan, won its veteran director Martin Scorsese a Golden Globe.

He has never won an Oscar, and is expected to be nominated this year.

Other films in the running are Roman Polanski's The Pianist, set during the Holocaust, which won last year's Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Meryl Streep won a Golden Globe for Adaptation

The second Lord of the Rings epic, The Two Towers, directed by Peter Jackson, is also expected to get several nominations, although last year's Rings film did not win Oscars in any of the major categories.

Other films which could be up for awards are About Schmidt, Road to Perdition, Adaptation and Far From Heaven and Adaptation.

And outsiders include Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her and box-office sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Nicholson favourite

Three-time Oscar winner Jack Nicholson looks set to gain a 12th best actor nomination for his role as a retired insurance official in the dark comedy About Schmidt.

He is the bookmakers' favourite to win after being awarded the Golden Globe.

He faces strong competition from Daniel Day-Lewis - the villainous Bill The Butcher in Gangs of New York - Michael Caine for The Quiet American, and Richard Gere, a Golden Globe winner for Chicago.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Gangs of New York

Tom Hanks, a perennial Oscar favourite, may have a chance for Road To Perdition, while Nicolas Cage could be up for black comedy Adoption.

Kidman faces competition from her co-stars in The Hours - two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep who may achieve a record-breaking 13th acting nomination - and Julianne Moore, who may also be up for Far From Heaven.

Catherine Zeta Jones, who missed out on a Golden Globe for her role in Chicago to her co-star Zellweger, may also get an Oscar nomination.

Other contenders include Diane Lane (Unfaithful), Salma Hayek (Frida) and Renee Zellweger (Chicago).