Rob Marshall's Nine and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds; each with ten nominations, and James Cameron's Avatar with nine, are the leading nominees for the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Critics Choice Awards, which will be handed out this evening at the Hollywood Palladium. The show will be hosted by Kristin Chenoweth.
In addition to the aforementioned three films, the other seven best picture nominees are: Lone Scherfig's An Education; Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker; Clint Eastwood's Invictus; Lee Daniels' Precious; Joel and Ethan Coen's A Serious Man; Pete Docter's Up and Jason Reitman's Up in the Air. Bigelow, Cameron, Daniels, Eastwood, Reitman, and Tarantino received best director nods.
The best actor nominees are George Clooney, Up in the Air; Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart; Colin Firth for A Single Man; Morgan Freeman for Invictus; Viggo Mortensen for The Road and Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker.
In the running for best actress are Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria; Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side; Carey Mulligan, An Education; Gabourey Sidibe, Precious; Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia; and Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones.
Among the performers nominated in the supporting categories are Matt Damon, Invictus; Woody Harrelson, The Messenger; Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds; Marion Cotillard, Nine; Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air; Mo'Nique, Precious; and Julianne Moore, A Single Man.
Kevin Bacon will receive the Joel Siegel humanitarian award.
The Broadcast Film Critics Association is comprised of 200 TV, radio and online film critics. The ceremony will be televised live at 9 p.m. ET on VH1. Those on the West Coast will have to wait until 9 p.m. local time to watch the show.
Photos: Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard in Nine (David James / The Weinstein Co.) (top); Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds (François Duhamel / The Weinstein Co.) (bottom)