Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator (L); Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

Hollywood had a wide-open race on Tuesday as Oscar nominations pitted two powerful dramas by veterans Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood against the charm of films about wine tasting, Peter Pan and Ray Charles.

Director Scorsese's epic film about billionaire Howard Hughes, The Aviator, clinched 11 nominations, followed by seven each for Eastwood's gritty boxing fable, Million Dollar Baby, and Finding Neverland, a bittersweet tale of the family that inspired JM Barrie to write Peter Pan.

Ray, a film that took director Taylor Hackford 15 years to find financing for, received six nominations. The quirky California wine country comedy Sideways garnered five, although, in one of the day's big surprises, its much-praised star Paul Giamatti was not nominated for best actor.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Frank Pierson said the nominations added up "to a very interesting horse race. It is an open field." Unlike in recent years, he noted there was no Titanic or Lord of the Rings towering over the competition and for the first time in a long while, the Oscars had some suspense.

Meanwhile, many consider Jamie Foxx as the front-runner for a best actor Oscar. Odds-makers declared Foxx the favorite in the best actor category. He was also nominated for his supporting role in crime drama Collateral opposite Tom Cruise (news). No actor has won both accolades in the same year.

The other nominees for best actor were Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda and Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland.

Two of the year's most controversial movies fared poorly. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ picked up three nominations--for cinematography, makeup and original score while Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 did not receive any.

Best actress nominations went to Annette Bening in Being Julia, Colombian newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace, Britain's Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake, Swank in Million Dollar Baby and Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was the second time that Bening and Swank have been rivals for an Oscar with Swank having won in 2000 for Boys Don't Cry.

The other best director nominees were Taylor Hackford for Ray, Alexander Payne for Sideways, and Mike Leigh for abortion drama Vera Drake.

The Academy Awards will be on February 27 in a red-carpet ceremony in Los Angeles.