Oscar race wide open with no clear favourites

A flood of awards and nominations from American critics over the weekend have shown that there are no clear favourites yet for the Oscars. Several films picked up several awards, with no one film emerging as an early front-runner. It's set to be one of the tightest Oscar races for years.

San Francisco critics gave the best film and director awards to 'The Tree of Life', with Brits Tilda Swinton and Gary Oldman picking up the main acting awards for 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' and 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' respectively.

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Although Terrence Malick also picked up the directing win from LA Critics, his film lost out to 'The Descendants' in another set of awards. Michael Fassbender was given the best actor nod, with all four of his 2011 US releases being recognised, and 'Rango' was given the best animated feature. The unlikely winner of the best actress category was Yun Jung-hee for 'Poetry'.

Over on the East Coast, New York and Boston critics were handing out gongs as well. There was some consensus over the best film of the year with 'The Artist' being the popular choice, but the voters were split over the other categories with NY critics giving the best director win to Michael Hazanavicius for his homage to silent cinema, whereas Bostonians opted for Martin Scorsese.

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There appears to be a favourite in the best supporting actor category as Albert Brooks picked up several wins for his turn in 'Drive'. Similarly 'Bridesmaids' star Melissa McCarthy looks to be the one to catch in the best supporting actress category.

By this time last year, 'The Kings Speech' had already emerged as the one to beat, but it looks like the 2012 Oscars will be wide open. Something that producers always hope for as it guarantees a bigger audience.