Critical darlings announced

The year end film award season is upon us.

The Hollywood Foreign Press have announced their Golden Globe Award nominees. Also many media film critic groups—including the National Board of Review, the Broadcast Film Critics, the New York Film Circle, and the LA, Detroit and Washington DC Film Critics—have made their selections.

What follows is a list of the nominees in the major categories most mentioned in these year-end critics lists.

These should help predict the nominees for the Oscars. (in case you haven't heard the telecast will be hosted by Hugh Jackman this year)

(The number in parentheses beside each nominee indicates the number of mentions each nominee received and they are ranked by categories starting with the most mentioned)

Best Picture

Slumdog Millionaire (4)
Frost/Nixon (4)
WALL-E (4)
Milk (3)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (3)
The Dark Knight (3)
The Wrestler (3)
The Reader (2)
Changeling (2)

Best Leading Actor

Sean Penn in Milk (5)
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (5)
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon (3)
Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road (2)
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2)
Clinton Eastwood in Gran Torino (2)

Best Leading Actress

Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married (4)
Melissa Leo in Frozen River (3)
Sally Hawkins in Happy Go Lucky (3)
Meryl Streep in Doubt (3)
Aneglina Jolie for Changling (2)
Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road (2)

Best Supporting Actor

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (5)
Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder (3)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt (2)
James Franco in Milk or Pineapple Express (2)
Josh Brolin in Milk (2)

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Bracelona (6)
Viola Davis in Doubt (3)
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler (3)
Kate Winslet in The Reader (2)
Amy Adams in Doubt (2)
Rosemarie DeWitt in Rachel Getting Married (2)

Best Director

Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (4)
David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (3)
Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon (3)
Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight (2)