And the Oscar nominees are...

The nominations for the Acadamy Awards were announced on Monday.  There were over 20 categories, judging everything from Best Picture to Best Music score and each had multiple nominees.

The category of Best Picture is one of the most renowned categories and had many notable nominations. The 2012 nominees are as follows — "The Artist," "The Descendents," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "The Help," "Hugo," "War Horse," "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball" and "The Tree of Life."

Multiple men are gunning for the Best Actor in a Leading Role award. Nominees include George Clooney for "The Descendents," Demián Bichir for "A Better Life," Jean Dujardin for "The Artist," Gary Oldman for "Tinker Tailor Solider Spy" and finally Brad Pitt for "Moneyball."

The equally sought-after award for Best Actress in a Leading Role also has many exciting nominations this year. Glenn Close was nominated for her role in "Albert Nobbs," Viola Davis for "The Help," Rooney Mara for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady" and Michelle Williams for "My Week with Marilyn."

The categories of Best Supporting Actor and Actress also received many worthy nominees.

For Best Supporting Actor, the nominees are Kenneth Branagh for "My Week with Marilyn," Jonah Hill for "Moneyball," Nick Nolte for "Warrior," Christopher Plummer for "Beginners" and finally Max von Sydow for "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

In the Best Supporting Actress category, Bérénice Bejo was nominated for "The Artist," Jessica Chastain for "The Help," Melissa McCarthy for "Bridesmaids," Janet McTeer for "Albert Nobbs" and Octavia Spencer for "The Help."

Of course, movies would be nowhere without their directors. The category of Best Directing recognizes this aspect of film. The nominated directors are Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist," Alexander Payne for "The Descendants," Martin Scorsese for "Hugo," Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris" and finally Terrence Malick for "The Tree of Life."

In the category of Best Animated Feature Film, "A Cat in Paris," "Chico & Rita," "Kung Fu Panda 2," "Puss in Boots" and "Rango" were all nominated.

Along with these, there were nominees for other prestigious categories, such as Best Adapted and Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Song, Best Foreign Film, Best Feature and Short Documentary, Best Animated and Live Action Short Film, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.

Be sure to tune in on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. to see who will go home with an Oscar and who should remain hopeful for next year.