"American Hustle" and "Gravity" lead this year's Oscar contenders with 10 nominations each.

 (FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES) - Con-men caper "American Hustle" and space thriller "Gravity" led Oscar nominees on Thursday (January 16) with 10 nominations each, including best picture, in the race for the world's top film prize.

Those three films will be joined by six others in the best picture competition: "Captain Phillips," "Dallas Buyers Club," "Her," "Nebraska," "Philomena," and "The Wolf of Wall Street."

The Somali piracy thriller "Captain Phillips," the AIDS activism tale "Dallas Buyers Club," and heartland comedy "Nebraska" each secured six nominations. Director Martin Scorsese's cautionary tale on financial greed "The Wolf of Wall Street" followed with five, as did the quirky computer age romance "Her."

Eight individuals in the acting categories are first-time nominees, including Chiwetel Ejiofor as the free man sold into slavery in "12 Years a Slave." He will compete in the best actor race with Matthew McConaughey, the Golden Globe winner for his role as the unlikely AIDS crusader in "Dallas Buyers Club."

Meryl Streep extended her lead as the most nominated performer with an eighteenth nomination, this year for best actress as the matriarch in "August: Osage County." She goes up against fellow Oscar winners Sandra Bullock as the astronaut lost in space in "Gravity" and Cate Blanchett as the riches-to-rags socialite in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine."

The Academy will hand out the Oscars at a ceremony in Los Angeles on March 2.