Just on the coattails of the Golden Globe Awards two weeks ago, the 2009 nominees for the Academy Awards were announced Jan. 22. Films “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and “Slumdog Millionaire” were top dogs in the nominee list.

Academy President Sid Ganis, along with Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, announced the awards at a live news conference. “Benjamin Button” led the pack with 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt) and Best Director (David Fincher). The film, based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, is about a man (Pitt) who ages backwards.

“Slumdog Millionaire” wasn’t far behind “Button” with 10 nominations, also including Best Picture and Best Director (Danny Boyle). “Millionaire,” about a young Mumbai man who gets on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be Millionaire,” won Best Picture at the Golden Globe awards on Jan. 11. It’s considered the biggest surprise hit of the year.

One of the bigger surprises was the nomination for “The Reader” for Best Picture, Best Director (Stephen Daldry) Best Actress (Kate Winslet) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film has gotten seriously mixed reviews, and despite garnering a Golden Globe for Kate Winslet, was largely believed to be inferior to Winslet’s other film this year, “Revolutionary Road”. The latter film received a Supporting Actor nod to Michael Shannon in the acting categories.

As predicted, Heath Ledger was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Dark Knight.” The announcement came on the one year anniversary of Ledger’s death from an accidental overdose. Ledger received a posthumous Best Supporting Actor award at the Golden Globes.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences distributes the awards. The academy is made up of professionals in all aspects of the film industry, who judge the nominees in their respective categories. The Academy Awards themselves will take place at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC network on Feb. 22.

Complete list of nominees on the next page.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Based on the story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has been transformed by director David Fincher from a novella to an epic. By fleshing out Fitzgerald’s brisk tale of a man who ages backwards, he makes “Button” breathe again.

Spanning the course of nearly a century, Brad Pitt plays Benjamin Button, a child born with all of the deteriorations of a man in his eighties. Discarded by his father into the loving arms of Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), an owner of an early form of a nursing home, Benjamin ages backwards but, by doing so, is able to learn the important lessons of life both backwards and forwards.

He meets Daisy (who grows up to be Cate Blanchett) when she was just 7 years old. They age together and yet separately, when he starts his life on a tugboat sailing out of New Orleans when he is just about age 16. Daisy, who he always views as the love of his life, lives a very different life in New York City as a dancer.

Benjamin seems to live many different lives over the course of the movie. But, with the film stretching close to three hours long, it takes a while to get past the preliminary portion of the film and into its heart – the relationship between Daisy and Benjamin.

Pitt plays Benjamin from about age seven to age 70 by using advanced CGI-techniques. “Button” was clearly created to be more of a fairy tale than a real story, but because of the aging backwards process, the CGI makes it hard to tell just how old Benjamin is supposed to be. Audience members uncomfortably questioned whether it was proper for Benjamin to have his first woman before realizing he was not around age 10 like they thought and was closer to age 16.

The fairy tale aspect of the film takes away from its message a bit. “Button” loses itself in its length, caught between telling a story and relaying a moral. Ultimately, “Button” was trying to explain that it is never too late to start your life over – a theme created for the film. There wasn’t enough to the film to justify its length.

Overall, “Button” was a good film. Pitt and Blanchett deliver beautiful performances as usual, and Fincher put together a wonderful piece of art. But “Button” begins to feel like a chore to watch once it gets into its second hour and thus losing the power a more concise film would have had.

When you go to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in theaters this winter, speak softly. A Philadelphia man, furious because a fellow moviegoer was talking loudly to his son during a Christmas Day showing of the film, shot the man in the arm and threw popcorn at his son, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

James Joseph Cialella Jr., 29, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons violations, the Inquirer reports.

Cialella, after hearing the noise, got up out of his seat to confront the family. The father got up to defend his son, and in response Cialella pulled out a .380-caliber gun and shot the father in the arm.

He then turned back to his seat and sat down.

INSANE. The movie is on the top of my “must see” list for the holidays, but I had no idea it was “shoot the guy who talks too loudly” good.