Nominations for the 2009 Academy Awards were announced today, with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” appearing as front runner, up for 13 of the esteemed Oscar statuettes.

Heath Ledger has posthumously claimed a place on the nominees list in the Best Supporting Actor category for his portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight was nominated for eight awards in total, including Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects.

The full list of nominations can be viewed at the official 2009 Oscars website, but here are a few of the more important categories:

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.), A Kennedy/Marshall Production, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ce?°n Chaffin, Producers
Frost/Nixon (Universal), A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
Milk (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
The Reader (The Weinstein Company), A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production
Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant – Milk

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
Iron Man (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment), John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Bolt (Walt Disney), Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount), John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
WALL-E (Walt Disney), Andrew Stanton

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
La Maison en Petits Cubes A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
Lavatory – Lovestory A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production, Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi (Talantis Films), A Gobelins, L’s?¬¨¬©cole de l’simage Production, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
Presto (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
This Way Up A Nexus Production, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes