In pictures: Oscar nominees 2010

Sci-fi epic Avatar is one of the 10 best film nominees at this year's Oscars. It stars Sam Worthington as a paraplegic former marine who travels to a distant moon and tries to persuade the natives to hand over a precious mineral, known as Unobtanium.

The Blind Side tells the real-life story of Michael Oher, an American football star who spent his youth on the streets after being born to a crack addict. Sandra Bullock, who plays his adoptive mother, is up for best actress.

District 9 is an intriguing sci-fi tale set in South Africa, where an alien race finds itself ghettoised. A clear allegory for apartheid, it made a star of its hitherto unknown lead, Sharlto Copley.

British actress Carey Mulligan has won praise for her first big role in 60s drama An Education, in which she plays a school girl who unwittingly falls for a married man. It's based on the Lynn Barber memoir and directed by Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig.

The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is about three US bomb squad technicians working in Iraq. It's based on the real life observations of writer Mark Boal. There are no big stars, but Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes have cameos.

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is a World War II romp, following a band of Jewish fighters whose aim is to "kill as many Nazis as possible". Austria's Christoph Waltz is also Oscar-nominated for his chilling Nazi colonel, Hans Landa.

Precious tells the harrowing story of a teenage girl of the same name who battles to make a life for herself, despite a background of crushing poverty and sexual, physical and mental abuse from her parents. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe stars in the title role.

The Coen brothers' A Serious Man is said to be their most personal film yet, chronicling a fractious Jewish family in 60s mid-west America. Michael Stuhlbarg plays a physics professor searching for balance in life after his wife informs him she is leaving.

Up in the Air stars George Clooney as a man who spends his life flying around the US firing people for company bosses. His transient existence in airports, planes and hotels suits him just fine until two very different women enter his life.

Disney Pixar's Up is only the second cartoon ever to be nominated for Best Picture, after Beauty And The Beast in 1991. It tells the story of a widower who flies to South America by tying helium balloons to his house, and is also up for best animated film.