"Gravity" and "American Hustle" lead nominations for 86th Annual Academy Awards with ten nominations each.

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 16, 2013) (A.M.P.A.S. UNRESTRICTED POOL) - 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."

Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may nominate up to 10 films for best picture, but only chose nine this year. A notable exclusion was the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis," which had won some top critics' awards.

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."

The nominees for best director are: for "American Hustle," David O. Russell, for "Gravity" Alfonso Cuarón, for "Nebraska," Alexander Payne, for "12 Years a Slave," Steve McQueen, and for "The Wolf of Wall Street" Martin Scorsese.

The nominees for best actor are: Christian Bale, for "American Hustle," Bruce Dern, for "Nebraska," Leonardo DiCaprio, for "The Wolf of Wall Street," and Chiwetel Ejiofor, for "12 Years A Slave."

The nominees for best actress are: Amy Adams, for "American Hustle," Cate Blanchett, for "Blue Jasmine," Sandra Bullock, for "Gravity," Judi Dench, for "Philomena," and Meryl Streep, for "August:Osage County."

The nominees for best supporting actor are: Barkhad Abdi, for "Captain Phillips," Bradley Cooper, for "American Hustle," Michael Fassbender, for "12 Years A Slave," Jonah Hill, for "The Wolf of Wall Street," and Jared Leto, for "Dallas Buyers Club."

The nominees for best supporting actress are: "Blue Jasmine," Jennifer Lawrence, for "American Hustle," Lupita Nyong'o, for "12 Years A Slave," Julia Roberts, for "August: Osage County," and June Squibb, for "Nebraska."

The nominees for best foreign language film are: "The Broken Circle Breakdown," from Belgium, "The Great Beauty," from Italy, "The Hunt," from Denmark, "The Missing Picture," from Cambodia, and "Omar," from Palestine.

The nominees for best animated feature are: "The Croods," "Despicable Me 2," "Ernest & Celestine," "Frozen," "The Wind Rises."

The nominees for best documentary film are: "The Act of Killing," "Cutie & The Boxer," "Dirty Wars," "The Square," and "Twenty Feet From Stardom."

The nominees for best original screenplay are American Hustle" by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell, "Blue Jasmine" by Woody Allen, "Dallas Buyers Club" by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack, "Her" by Spike Jonze, and "Nebraska" by Bob Nelson.

The nominees for best adapted screenplay are: "Before Midnight," written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, "Captain Phillips," by Billy Ray, "Philomena," by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, and "12 Years a Slave," by John Ridley.

And the nominations for best original song include a star-studded field: "Alone Yet Not Alone" from "Alone Yet Not Alone," "Happy," written by Pharrell Williams, from "Despicable Me 2," "The Moon Song" written by Yeah Yeah Yeah's singer Karen O and Spike Jonze, from "Her," and "Ordinary Love" from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," by Irish rock band U2

The Academy will hand out the Oscars at a ceremony hosted by comedian Ellen DeGeneres in Los Angeles on March 2.