Film world awaits Oscar shortlist

Avatar, Precious and The Hurt Locker are among the films expected to feature in this year's Oscar nominations, to be announced later in Los Angeles.

Others include Up in the Air, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and the British film An Education.

This year's best picture category will include 10 movies, instead of the usual five, for the first time since 1944.

Actress Anne Hathaway will join Academy president Tom Sherak to reveal nominees in 10 of the 24 categories at 1338 GMT.

This year's Academy Awards will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on 7 March.

Iraq drama The Hurt Locker currently leads the field, having picked up top honours at both the Producers Guild and Directors Guild awards.

Contest

If its director Kathryn Bigelow is nominated for the best director Oscar, she would become only the third woman to be shortlisted for this prize in the awards' 81-year history.

If James Cameron is also nominated for Avatar, it will set up a fascinating contest between Bigelow and her former husband.

Cameron's sci-fi epic remains top of the US box office chart for the seventh straight weekend, raking in $31.3m (£19.6m) between Friday and Sunday.

Currently Avatar takings in the US and Canada stand at $595.8m (£374m), putting it on course to overtake Titanic's domestic takings of $600.8m (£377m).

Avatar's worldwide takings have now exceeded $2bn (£1.25m), thanks in part to the extra charges cinemagoers have paid to see it in 3D.

Its closest competition in the US was provided by Mel Gibson thriller Edge of Darkness, which made its debut in second place with a first weekend haul of $17.1m (£10.7m).

Romantic comedy When In Rome came third in this week's chart, making $12.1m (£7.6m) in its first three days on release.

In the UK, Avatar also reigns supreme at the top of the UK box office chart.

Since opening on 17 December, Cameron's film has made more than £65m in cinemas in the UK and Ireland.

The Oscar nominations will be streamed live on the BBC News website at 1338 GMT.