Actress Jennifer Hudson, one of the stars of the film 'Dreamgirls'. - reuters

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP):

The crowd-pleasing musical Dreamgirls led Academy Awards contenders yesterday with eight nominations, but surprisingly was shut out in the best picture category after being considered a potential front-runner.

The sweeping ensemble drama Babel was close behind with seven, including best picture and acting honors for two newcomers to United States audiences, Mexico's Adriana Barraza and Japan's Rinko Kikuchi. The gothic fairy tale Pan's Labyrinth had six nominations, including best foreign-language film.

Other best-picture nominees were the bloody crime saga The Departed, the World War II spectacle Letters From Iwo Jima the road-trip comedy Little Miss Sunshine and the monarchy-in-crisis chronicle The Queen.

Going into nominations day, the best-picture competition looked unusually wide open, with no consensus on a favorite. With Golden Globe musical winner Dreamgirls out of the running, the race could come down to Golden Globe drama winner Babel and The Departed, though the British film The Queen, with six nominations, could be a dark-horse contender as well.

But front-runners in all four acting categories nabbed nominations and seem poised to come home with Oscars on February 25: Britain's Helen Mirren for best actress as British monarch Elizabeth II in The Queen; Forest Whitaker for best actor as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland; and Eddie Murphy and former American Idol finalist Jennifer Hudson as soulful singers in Dreamgirls.

All four preceded the Oscar nominations with wins at the Golden Globes.

For Hudson, the nomination caps a speedy rise to stardom with her first film role, just two years after making her name as a top contender on the TV singing competition American Idol.

The best-actress category featured a 14th nomination for two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep, padding her record as the most-nominated actor ever, this time as a demonically demanding boss in The Devil Wears Prada.

Joining Mirren and Streep as best-actress nominees were Spain's Penelope Cruz as a woman dealing with bizarre domestic crises in Volver, and two other British actresses,Judi Dench as a scheming teacher in Notes on a Scandal and Kate Winslet as a woman in an affair with a neighbour in Little Children.

Other best-actor nominees were Leonardo DiCaprio as a mercenary hunting a rare gem in Blood Diamond; Ryan Gosling as a teacher with a drug addiction in Half Nelson; Peter O'Toole as a lecherous old actor in Venu; and Will Smith as a homeless dad in The Pursuit of Happyness.

See full list of Oscar nominations on Page C11.

Whitaker is expected to come away with best actor, though sentiment is high for the Irish-born O'Toole, who has been nominated seven times, losing each. An eighth loss for O'Toole, who nearly turned down an honorary Oscar three years ago because he hoped to earn one outright, would put him in the record books as the actor with the most nominations without winning.

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