Making a Date with Oscar

Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and past Oscar nominee Salma Hayek (Frida) announced the nominees for the 79th Annual Academy Awards this morning, and, shockingly, The Queen's Helen Mirren was snubbed.

Aw – gotcha!

Actually, there were a few surprises – a Dreamgirls snub in the Best Picture category, the inclusion of Ryan Gosling and Abigail Breslin on the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress lists, respectively, and some Oscar love for Borat, after all) – but rest assured, Dame Mirren will definitely make it to the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland next month.

Here are a few of the categories announced earlier; you can find a complete list here:

For Best Picture: Babel, The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine (which won the Producers Guild of America Award over the weekend, by the way), and The Queen

For Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond; Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson; Peter O'Toole, Venus; Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness; and Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

For Best Actress: Penélope Cruz, Volver (which I did see and enjoyed, but didn't tell you about); Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal; Helen Mirren, The Queen; Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada; and Kate Winslet, Little Children

For Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine; Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children; Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond; Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls; and Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

For Best Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza, Babel; Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal; Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls; Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

For Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima; Stephen Frears, The Queen; Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel; Paul Greengrass, United 93; and Martin Scorsese, The Departed

For Best Adapted Screenplay: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Children, and Notes on a Scandal

For Best Original Screenplay: Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Queen

The Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 8:30 p.m. EST. Place your bets now, and remember that the surest bet of all is that it’ll be a funny, funny show (Ellen DeGeneres will host).

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures (Little Miss Sunshine).