'The King's Speech' leads with 12 Oscar nominations

Two very different movies — one the story of a British king who struggled to speak to his subjects and another of a girl in the American West out to avenge the murder of her father — captured the imagination of their peers Tuesday, who showered them with many Oscar nominations. The King's Speech received 12 nominations, including best picture, actor, director, supporting actor and supporting actress.
True Grit was close behind with 10 nominations, including best picture, actor, director and supporting actress.
The awards season thus far has seemed to put King's Speech against The Social Network, which won key pre-Oscar best picture wins, including the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. But Social, about the founding of Facebook, came up third in the number of Oscar nominations at eight, including best picture, actor and director.
Inception also received eight nominations, including best picture, but no directing nomination for Christopher Nolan. However, his creation of the brain-twisting story was recognized with a nomination for original screenplay.
Mark Wahlberg's The Fighter received seven nominations, including best picture and director, as well as highly anticipated supporting actor and actress nominations for Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams.
The nominees include:
Best picture
This is the second consecutive year in which the best-picture field is expanded to 10 films:
•127 Hours: James Franco stars in this Danny Boyle-directed film about Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who had to take drastic measures to save his own life after his arm was pinned by a boulder during a 2003 solo hike in Moab, Utah.
•Black Swan: Darren Aronofsky's psychological drama about a tormented ballerina, played by Natalie Portman, longing to play both light and dark sides of the Swan Queen in Black Swan. Portman won a Golden Globe on Jan. 16 for best actress in a drama for this role.
•The Fighter: Wahlberg's labor of love, based on the true story of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and how he broke into professional boxing in the 1980s with the help of his crack-addicted brother Dickie (Bale) and domineering mother (Leo). Bale and Leo are also Globe winners for supporting actor and actress.
•Inception: Nolan's brain twister about a thief for hire (Leonardo DiCaprio) who can infiltrate dreams, trafficking in the furthest reaches of the subconscious and unearthing dark secrets.
•The Kids Are All Right: Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a lesbian couple whose teenage children decide to track down their sperm-donor dad (Mark Ruffalo), leading to all sorts of complications in their lives. Bening won the best actress in a comedy or musical Golden Globe.
•The King's Speech: The story of how King George VI (Colin Firth) took the throne of England on the abdication of his brother and, with the nation on the brink of war, desperately needed a cure for his severe stammer. The solution came in the form of an unorthodox speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush). Firth has already won the best actor/drama Globe for this role.
•The Social Network: David Fincher's skewering look at the genesis of Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), who started the social-networking site while a student at Harvard. He made it and himself a staggering success with a single-mindedness that didn't bode well for those close to him. The film won the best-drama Golden Globe.
•Toy Story 3: Sheriff Woody (voice of Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and their pals get the 3-D treatment as owner Andy prepares to head off to college in this final entry in the Toy Story trilogy. Packed in a box destined for the attic, they are mistakenly sent to a day-care center full of destructive kids and power-hungry toys. The film won the Golden Globe for best animated film.
•True Grit: Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of the 1969 movie that won John Wayne an Oscar, this time starring Jeff Bridges as the drunken, disreputable Marshall Rooster Cogburn and Hailee Steinfeld as the teenage girl who hires him to find the man who killed her father.
•Winter's Bone: Jennifer Lawrence plays a teenage Ozark Mountains girl who defies her clan's code to hunt down her crystal-meth-making father after he's skipped bail and her family home is on the line. With a disabled mom and young siblings facing destitution, she redefines family loyalty and confronts her kin to bring her father home.
Best director
•Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
•Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit
•David Fincher, The Social Network
•David O. Russell, The Fighter
•Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
Best actor
•Colin Firth, the stuttering George VI in The King's Speech.
•James Franco, the trapped climber in 127 Hours.
•Jesse Eisenberg, the single-minded founder of Facebook in The Social Network.
•Jeff Bridges, the drunken Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.
•Javier Bardem, the single-dad criminal in Biutiful.
Actress
•Natalie Portman, the tortured ballerina in Black Swan.
•Annette Bening, the lesbian mom whose life is turned upside down in The Kids Are All Right.
•Jennifer Lawrence, the girl trying to track down her dad and save her family in Winter's Bone.
•Nicole Kidman, the grieving mom in Rabbit Hole.
•Michelle Williams, the struggling wife in Blue Valentine.
Supporting actor
•Christian Bale, the crack-addicted boxing coach in The Fighter.
•Jeremy Renner, the uncontrollable bank robber in The Town.
•Geoffrey Rush, the unconventional speech therapist in The King's Speech.
•Mark Ruffalo, the biological father in The Kids Are All Right.
•John Hawkes, in the Ozarks family drama Winters Bone.
Supporting actress
•Helena Bonham Carter, the loyal, royal wife in The King's Speech.
•Melissa Leo, the domineering mom/boxing manager in The Fighter.
•Amy Adams, the tough but supportive girlfriend in The Fighter.
•Hailee Steinfeld, the teen determined to avenge her father's murder in True Grit.
•Jacki Weaver, the crime family matriarch in Animal Kingdom.
Best animated feature
•How to Train Your Dragon
•The Illusionist
•Toy Story 3
Adapted screenplay
•127 Hours by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy
•The Social Network by Aaron Sorkin
•Toy Story 3 by Michael Arndt
•True Grit by Joel and Ethan Coen
•Winter's Bone by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
Original screenplay
•Another Year by Mike Leigh
•The Fighter by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson; story by Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson
•Inception by Christopher Nolan
•The Kids Are All Right by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
•The King's Speech by David Seidler
The Academy Awards will be presented on Feb. 27, and televised live on ABC. The hosts this year are actors Anne Hathaway and James Franco