LOS ANGELES— “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” took narrow leads in the Oscar race on Tuesday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences scattered its honors among an unusually wide field of contenders. Each film received nine nominations, including best picture and best director for James Cameron (“Avatar”) and Kathryn Bigelow (“Hurt Locker”). The anti-Nazi revenge fantasy “Inglourious Basterds” followed close behind with eight nominations, including best director and best original screenplay for Quentin Tarantino, and best supporting actor for Christoph Waltz. The harsh drama “Precious: Based on …

Starring: Akio Otsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Koichi Yamadera, Tamio Oki, Yutaka Nakano
Directed by: Mamoru Oshii
Produced by: Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Toshio Suzuki, Mitsuhisa Ichikawa
Genres: Action/Adventure, Animation and Sequel
It is the year 2032, and the line between humans and machines has been blurred almost beyond distinction. Humans have forgotten that they are human, and those that are left co-exist with cyborgs–human spirits inhabiting entirely mechanized bodies, and dolls–robots with no human elements at all. Batou is a cyborg.