Brokeback Mountainhas won eight Oscar nominations.
Nominations secured by the film, about a pair of cowboys who fall in love, include best picture, best director and best actor for star Heath Ledger.
Race relations drama Crashand Good Night, and Good Luck, actor/director George Clooney's look at newsman Edward R. Murrow's attack on McCarthyism in the 1950s, each received six nominations and landed in the category for best film.
Memoirs of a Geishaalso had six Academy Award nominations but failed to be nominated for best movie.
Other best film nominees included Capote, about author Truman Capote reporting for his novel In Cold Blood, with five nominations overall, and director Steven Spielberg's Munich, about the aftermath of the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which also had five nominations.
In the category for best actor, Ledger, who portrays a lovelorn cowboy in Brokeback, was joined by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the lead character in Capote, Terrence Howard as a pimp in Hustle & Flow, Joaquin Phoenix for his role as singer Johnny Cash in Walk the Lineand David Strathairn as Murrow in Good Night.
Best actress nominees were Judi Dench playing a theatre owner in World War II-era Mrs. Henderson Presents, Felicity Huffman as a transgendered character in Transamerica, Keira Knightley for romance Pride & Prejudice, Charlize Theron in sexual harassment drama North Countryand Reese Witherspoon playing singer June Carter in Walk the Line.
Supporting actor nominations went to Clooney in Syriana, Matt Dillon in Crash, Paul Giamatti in Cinderella Man, Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountainand William Hurt for A History of Violence.
Supporting actress nominees were Amy Adams in Junebug, Catherine Keener in Capote, Frances McDormand in North Country, Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardenerand Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain.
The Oscars, which are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are world cinema's top prize. They will be handed out on March 5th in Los Angeles.