Martin Scorsese's Hugo dominates Oscars with 11 nominations

Martin Scorsese's 3D adventure Hugo leads the Academy Awards with 11 nominations, including best picture and best director.

Silent black and white film The Artist has 10 nominations, including best film, director, actor for French star Jean Dujardin and supporting actress for Berenice Bejo.

The last silent film to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars was 1928 movie The Patriot.

Only one film - Hugo, Martin Scorsese's 3D ode to early cinema - has more nominations but many of its nods are in technical categories.

Meryl Streep's turn as Margaret Thatcher has secured the actress her 17th Oscar nomination, while Gary Oldman has clinched his first for his performance as a spymaster.

Streep, 62, is favourite to win best actress for her role as the former British prime minister in The Iron Lady.

British actor Oldman, 53, who has never been nominated before despite some acclaimed performances, is in the running for best actor for his role as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Streep, who already has a record 16 nominations and last won an Oscar for 1982 movie Sophie's Choice, said: "I am honoured to be in company with such beautiful artists, and touched deeply by my fellow actors for their generosity in giving me this acknowledgement."

The actress is up against Michelle Williams for her role as screen siren Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, Glenn Close for her turn as a woman disguised as a man in Albert Nobbs, Viola Davis (The Help), and Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo).

Oldman - whose best actor rivals are Dujardin, George Clooney (The Descendants), Brad Pitt (Moneyball) and Mexican Demian Bichir (A Better Life) - described his Oscar nomination as "amazing".

"You may have heard this before, but it has never been truer than it is for me today - it is extremely humbling, gratifying and delightful to have your work recognised by the Academy, and to join the celebrated ranks of previous nominees and colleagues," he said.

Britons Kenneth Branagh, 51, and Albert Nobbs star Janet McTeer, 50, are also in the running for the supporting actor categories.

Branagh, nominated for his performance in Marilyn Monroe biopic My Week With Marilyn, said: "It was a rare honour to play Sir Laurence Olivier. To be recognised by the Academy for doing so is overwhelming. I'm absolutely thrilled."

Steven Spielberg's War Horse, based on the National Theatre play inspired by Michael Morpurgo's novel, is among nine films up for best picture.

The film, up for six awards, is pitted against The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight In Paris, Moneyball and The Tree Of Life.

The Artist's Michel Hazanavicius, whose competition in the best director category includes Woody Allen for Midnight In Paris and Scorsese for Hugo, said he was "honoured" to be nominated.

"Filming The Artist in Los Angeles was a dream come true, and to receive this recognition today is far beyond what I ever imagined," he said.

"I couldn't have done this film without the incredible cast of actors and outstanding crew whose heart and souls were poured into this project."

The film's supporting actress contender Berenice Bejo said she was "overjoyed and filled with happiness".

"I can't believe that a year ago I was learning how to tap dance and today I am nominated for an Academy Award," she said.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's Peter Straughan is nominated for adapted screenplay with his late wife, Bridget O'Connor, who died of cancer at the age of 49.

"I wish more than anything in the world that my wife Bridget O'Connor - who did the lion's share of the adaptation - could be here to enjoy this moment," he said.

Oscar nods had been predicted for British actress Tilda Swinton, and Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, stars of Steve McQueen's tale of sex addiction, Shame, but they were ignored.

In the short subject documentary, London-born film-maker Lucy Walker is nominated with Kira Carstensen for The Tsunami And The Cherry Blossom, which was made in Japan following the devastating tsunami.

Saving Face, which follows London-based surgeon Mohammad Ali Jawad as he treats the victims of acid attacks in Pakistan, is also up for the award.

London animators Sue Goffe and Grant Orchard are nominated for short film (animated) for A Morning Stroll, while the short film (live action) category includes Irish film-maker Peter McDonald's Pentecost and Terry and Oorlagh George's Northern Ireland-set short The Shore.

The 84th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, take place on Sunday February 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Branagh later told the Press Association it was "very meaningful" to be nominated for playing a man he had always looked up to.

"If you are an actor, playing a prince of acting, to be recognised by a group of people that know a lot about such things is really touching," he said.

"To be recognised matters enormously."

He said: "I owe him (Sir Laurence) a debt of gratitude. He was an inspiration, so to be recognised is very meaningful.

"The film was hopefully a way of bringing a new generation's attention to a great man."

Asked what Sir Laurence might have made of his performance, he said: "I'm very glad that he's not around to say. But I hope that he's in the sky, with a smile on his face saying 'you cheeky bugger'."

Branagh said the biggest reward was being in the film, My Week With Marilyn.

"I knew when I was offered the part that I'd already got the prize of doing the film," he said.

"It was such a fun job to do, to play someone that I've admired so much ... everything else is a surprise."

The actor, who has been nominated on four previous occasions, said of co-star Williams: "She gives such a great performance of detail, heart, interior life and exterior dazzle."

Branagh has broken an Oscar record with five nominations in five categories over the years, his spokesman later said.

He has previously been nominated for best actor, director, adapted screenplay, and short.

Here is the full list of nominations for the 84th Academy Awards:

Best Picture

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

Best actor:

Demian Bichir - A Better Life

George Clooney - The Descendants

Jean Dujardin - The Artist

Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Best actress:

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis - The Help

Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

Supporting actor:

Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn

Jonah Hill - Moneyball

Nick Nolte - Warrior

Christopher Plummer - Beginners

Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Supporting actress:

Berenice Bejo - The Artist

Jessica Chastain - The Help

Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer - The Help

Adapted screenplay:

The Descendants

Hugo

The Ides of March

Moneyball

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Original screenplay:

The Artist

Bridesmaids

Margin Call

Midnight In Paris

A Separation

Directing:

The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius

The Descendants - Alexander Payne

Hugo - Martin Scorsese

Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen

The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

Animated feature film:

A Cat in Paris

Chico & Rita

Kung Fu Panda 2

Puss in Boots

Rango

Art direction:

The Artist

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

War Horse

Cinematography:

The Artist

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

The Tree of Life

War Horse

Costume design:

Anonymous

The Artist

Hugo

Jane Eyre

W.E.

Documentary (feature):

Hell and Back Again

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Pina

Undefeated

Documentary (short subject):

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement

God Is the Bigger Elvis

Incident in New Baghdad

Saving Face

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Film editing:

The Artist

The Descendants

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

Moneyball

Foreign language film:

Bullhead (Belgium)

Footnote (Israel)

In Darkness (Poland)

Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)

A Separation (Iran)

Make-up:

Albert Nobbs

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The Iron Lady

Music (original score):

The Adventures of Tintin - John Williams

The Artist - Ludovic Bource

Hugo - Howard Shore

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Alberto Iglesias

War Horse - John Williams

Music (Original Song):

Man or Muppet (The Muppets)

Real in Rio (Rio)

Short film (animated):

Dimanche/Sunday

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

La Luna

A Morning Stroll

Wild Life

Short film (live action):

Pentecost

Raju

The Shore

Time Freak

Tuba Atlantic

Sound editing:

Drive

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

War Horse

Sound mixing:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

Moneyball

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

War Horse

Visual effects:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Hugo

Real Steel

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Transformers: Dark of the Moon