No surprise here. While we'll have to wait until Feb. 2 to see if Precious charms the Academy as much as it has the rest of the film-honoring world, the indie flick today added to its pre-Oscar momentum by steamrolling through the NAACP Image Award nominations.
Precious earned a leading eight Image Award nods, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director for Lee Daniels and a host of acting nods.
In fact, nearly everyone who logged screen time in the Harlem-set drama seemed destined for a nomination. As expected, Gabourey Sidibe scored a Best Actress nomination, and Mariah Carey, Mo'Nique and Paula Patton are all up for Supporting Actress. Lenny Kravitz is up in the Supporting Actor race.
But movie stars weren't the only ones getting in on the nominating action.
Grey's Anatomy led the TV nominees with six nominations, followed by Everybody Hates Chris and Tyler Perry's House of Payne, which scored four apiece. Ugly Betty was another multiple nominee with three nods.
On the music side, Jay-Z and Maxwell earned five nods apiece, while Alicia Keys nabbed three and Mary J. Blige, Rihanna and comeback kid woman Whitney Houston banked two each.
The awards—which honor not only movies but also TV, music and literature—will be handed out Feb. 26, with the ceremony set to air live on Fox.
Get the complete list of nominees for the 41st annual NAACP Image Awards.
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Look back at the films that were in our Best of 2009: Movies gallery.