Academy Awards Broadcast on ABC This Sunday

The 79th Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC from the Kodak Theatre in L.A. this Sunday, February 25th at 8 PM ET.

Among the acting nominees are Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett.  Blanchett and Hudson are nominated as Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for their performances in Notes on a Scandal and Dreamgirls, respectively.  Other nominees in that category included Adriana Barraza for Babel, Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine, and Rinko Kikuchi for Babel.

Alan Arkin of Little Miss Sunshine and Murphy of Dreamgirls are nominated as Best Supporting Actor.  They are joined by Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children, Djimon Honsou for Blood Diamond, and Mark Wahlberg for The Departed.

Among the nominees for Best Actress are Mirren, for The Queen, Dench for Notes on a Scandal, and Streep for The Devil Wears Prada, as well as Penelope Cruz for Volver and Kate Winslet for Little Children.

Venus star Peter O'Toole is among the nominees for Best Actor.  The others are Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond, Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson, Will Smith for The Pursuit of Happyness and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland.

Playwright Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) received a nod for Best Original Screenplay for The Queen, while Closer and Howard Katz playwright Patrick Marber is nominated for Adapted Screenplay for Notes on a Scandal.

The nominees for Best Picture are Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen.   While not nominated in that category, Dreamgirls received eight total nominations- Art Direction, Costume Design, 3 nominations for Original Song, and Sound Mixing, as well as Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

Nominated for Best Director are Paul Greengrass for United 93, Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima, Martin Scorcese for The Departed, Stephen Frears for The Queen and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Babel.

Visit www.oscars.com for more information and a full list of nominees.

Photo of Jennifer Hudson by Retna Ltd.