Avatar. PA Photo/Fox Australia Film.

British stars Colin Firth, Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan have been nominated for best actor and best actress Oscars.

Firth is up for his first Oscar for his role as a gay academic mourning the death of his partner in fashion designer Tom Ford’s debut feature film A Single Man.

Newcomer Carey Mulligan, 24, is up for best actress for her role in An Education, based on the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber.

Previous Academy Award winner Dame Helen gets a go at a second Oscar for her performance as writer Leo Tolstoy’s wife in The Last Station.

An Education is nominated for best picture, alongside films including Avatar, The Hurt Locker, District 9, Precious, and Up In The Air.

Avatar director James Cameron is pitted against his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, whose film The Hurt Locker has won critical acclaim, in the directing category.

Made for a fraction of the budget of Avatar, The Hurt Locker, a tense movie about an elite bomb disposal team, has won widespread critical acclaim and triumphed at the Directors Guild of America awards.

Cameron and Bigelow were both shortlisted for best director in the Golden Globes, with Cameron taking the prize.

The nominations

Best Picture:

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

Best Actor:

• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best Supporting Actor:

• Matt Damon, Invictus
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress:

• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan, An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best Supporting Actress:

• Penelope Cruz, Nine
• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Mo’Nique, Precious

Best Director:

• James Cameron, Avatar
• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
• Lee Daniels, Precious
• Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• District 9
• An Education
• In the Loop
• Precious
• Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay:

• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• The Messenger
• A Serious Man
• Up

Best Animated Feature Film:

• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Seret of Kells
• Up

Best Foreign Language Film:

• Ajami (Israel)
• El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
• Un Prophete (France)
• The White Ribbon (Germany)