ANYTHING the upstart Golden Globes can do, the Oscars do better. Or so the Academy Awards like it to be thought. So each year Academy voters gently put the Golden Globes in their place. Not that there's much scope for difference. A public consensus on likely contenders is already established by the choices of a multitude of critic circles and guilds before any real votes are cast.

Thus this year's Oscar nominees for best actor, best actress and best supporting actress - announced last Tuesday - turned out to be identical to the previous week's Screen Actors' Guild nominees, and there was only one difference in the best supporting actor list with Mark Wahlberg getting the nod instead of his The Departed co-star Jack Nicholson.

Nevertheless, the Academy found some scope to assert its independence by shutting out Golden Globes winner Dreamgirls from the best picture and best director lists, while in the foreign-language category Mel Gibson's Apocalypto was shunned, but also - disgracefully - Pedro Almodovar's Volver.

The Oscar nominations overall reflect a good year for cinema in which a wide range of movies from around the world, as well as Hollywood, made a critical impact with American audiences.

Voters seem to have gone out of their way to reward nearly every movie worth a nod in some way or other, rather than setting up any one movie for a clean sweep.

There are the usual absurdities, particularly in the bestsupporting categories where, for instance, Jennifer Hudson's stand-out performance in is included. A somewhat bemused Clint Eastwood finds himself in the best-picture category for Letters From Iwo Jima but not in the foreignlanguage category for which he won a Golden Globe.

There's also the recurring conundrum of why someone - this year it's Paul Greengrass's turn with United 93 - can be nominated as best director while the movie for which he is nominated doesn't get a nod as best picture.

Apart from Peter O'Toole, there will be Irish interest in two other categories at the Awards on 25 February. Wicklow-based Consolata O'Boyle is in with a shot for her costume design on The Queen, but up against stiff competition from The Devil Wears Prada, Marie Antoinette, Dreamgirls and Curse of the Golden Flower. Deliver Us From Evil, dealing with the case of a paedophile priest now living in Ireland, is competing for best documentary against Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, My Country, My Country and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, the likely winner.

Best actor Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond) Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) Peter O'Toole (Venus) Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness) Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) Likely winner: Forest Whitaker My favourite: Forest Whitaker

Best actress Penelope Cruz (Volver) Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal) Helen Mirren (The Queen) Meryle Street (The Devil Wears Prada) Kate Winslet (Little Children) Likely winner: Helen Mirren My favourite: Penelope Cruz

Best supporting actor Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls) Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) Likely winner: Eddie Murphy My favourite: Mark Wahlberg

Best Supporting actress Adriana Barraza (Babel) Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal) Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) Likely winner: Jennifer Hudson My favourite:
Jennifer Hudson

Best director Alejandro Gonzalez Innarite (Babel) Clint Eastwood (Letters From Iwo Jima) Paul Greengrass (United 93) Stephen Frears (The Queen) Martin Scorsese (The Departed) Likely winner: Martin Scorsese My favourite: Martin Scorsese

Best Picture Babel The Departed Letters From Iwo Jima Little Miss Sunshine The Queen Likely winner: The Departed My favourite: The Departed Best foreign language After The Wedding Days of Glory The Lives of Others Pan's Labrynth Water Likely winner: The Lives of Others My favourite: Pan's Labrynth