The nominees for the 81st Academy Awards was released this morning, and while the genre movie racked up plenty of nominations our beloved Dark Knight was passed over on a few surprising categories.

The big winner this morning was The Curious Case Of Benjamin Buttons. The backwards aging baby was nominated for 13 awards including Best Performance (Brad Pitt), Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay (which I'm a little dubious of) and Best Visual Effects. WALL-E received 5 tips of the hat including Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song and Original Screenplay. The visual effects and sound effects nominations are stuffed with scifi and it's great to see Hellboy II get the recognition it so rightly deserves for makeup. So on that note I'm quite pleased with many of the nominations.

But I'm very disheartened by the passing over of Christopher Nolan for Best Director in The Dark Knight, as well as the snub in the Best Picture category and Best Original Score. The Dark Knight deserves every single technical award it was nominated for, but the movie as a whole deserved attention as well (not saying it deserved to win but a nom for sure). But let's take solace in the fact that Heath Ledger was rightfully nominated for his supporting role, and I will say he should win this category hands down. Plus it is a pleasure to see TDK getting props for Achievement In Cinematography.

Here are the rest of the nominees please feel free to share your surprise and delight.

Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role:
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn in Milk
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Josh Brolin in Milk
Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Performance By An Actress n A Supporting Role
Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Amy Adams in Doubt
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis in Doubt
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Best Animated Feature Film Of The Year
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

Achievement In Art Direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Changeling
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Achievement In Cinematography
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Costume Design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
Milk
The Duchess
Austrailia

Achievement In Directing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button David Fincher
Frost/Nixon Ron Howard
Milk Gus Van Sant
The Reader Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle

Achievement In Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures (Original Song)
"Down to Earth" from WALL-E Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Alexandre Desplat
Defiance James Newton Howard
Milk Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire A.R. Rahman

Best Motion Picture Of The Year
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Achievement In Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Achievement In Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
WALL-E
Wanted>
Slumdog Millionaire

Achievement In Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Original Screenplay
WALL-E
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk

Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

The award show will be held on February 22.

[The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences]

Send an email to Meredith, the author of this post, at meredith@io9.com.