9 nominees for best-picture Oscar

This morning, the Oscar nominations were revealed in Hollywood, and capturing the most nominations - 11 - was Martin Scorsese's Paris drama, Hugo.

The tale of a train-station orphan and a pioneer filmmaker got nods for best picture and director - but none for acting. It showed up in all sorts of other artistic and technical categories, including adapted screenplay, cinematography, costume design, original score, art direction and film editing.

This year, nine films will compete for best picture. The names were announced by actress Jennifer Lawrence, a best-actress candidate last year for Winter's Bone, and Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Instead of automatically having 10, like last year, the number could have been as few as five - the traditional number for decades.

As expected, best-picture nominees included The Descendants, a Hawaii-set family saga starring George Clooney that won the Golden Globe for best drama, and the musical or comedy winner, The Artist, a silent film starring Jean Dujardin as an actor contending with the advent of talkies.

The others, besides Hugo, are The Help, a drama about a writer's interactions with African-American maids in the 1960s South; Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen's romantic comedy about a traveling family in France; Moneyball, the Brad Pitt-starring tale of a baseball statistics revolution; War Horse, Steven Spielberg's World War I epic; Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a post-9/11 drama about a son coping with the loss of his father; and The Tree of Life, a philosophical tale of a Texas family, also starring Pitt.

Passed over were The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, J. Edgar, Shame, Young Adult, Bridesmaids and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Best foreign-language nominees are Bullhead (Belgium), Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), A Separation (Iran), Footnote (Israel) and In Darkness (Poland).

Best documentary features nominees: Hell and Back Again, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Pina, and Undefeated.

For best animated movie, the contenders are A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango.

The awards show will be telecast on ABC Feb. 26, with comedian Billy Crystal returning to host for the first time in eight years.

Here are the nominees in other major categories:

Best-actor:

Demian Bichir, A Better Life

George Clooney, The Descendants.

Jean Dujardin, The Artist.

Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.