We are officialy entering the "Oscar season".

The nominees for the 79th Annual Academy Awards, A.K.A the Oscars, were announced today, by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis, and past Oscar nominee Salma Hayek, in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Latin America was there, mostly trough "Pan's Labyrinth" (El Laberinto del Fauno), a Mexico/Spain/USA production, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro.

The movie got six nominations:

- Best foreign language film of the year: "Pan's Labyrinth>" A Tequila Gang/Esperanto Filmoj/Estudios Picasso Production

- Original screenplay: "Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse) Written by Guillermo del Toro

- Achievement in makeup: "Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse) David Marti and Montse Ribe

- Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score): "Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete

- Achievement in cinematography: "Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse) Guillermo Navarro

- Achievement in art direction: "Pan's Labyrinth" (Picturehouse)
Art Direction: Eugenio Caballero
Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta

The other Latin nominees are:

- Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Adriana Barraza in "Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)

- Achievement in film editing: "Children of Men" (Universal) - Alex Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón

- Adapted screenplay: "Children of Men" (Universal) - Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby

- Achievement in directing: "Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Alejandro González Iñárritu

- Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score): "Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo Santaolalla

- Best motion picture of the year: "Babel" (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
An Anonymous Content/Zeta Film/Central Films Production
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Steve Golin, Producers (USA/Mexico)

Hopefully, we'll be hearing a lot of Latin names after "And the Oscar goes to...". There's a lot of good work and talent in this nominations, and this people certainly deserve to be recognized.

Oh, and I bet many, many people will be pissed of because Mel Gibson's Apocalypto got three nominations. Others will be pissed of with the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" four nominations.

I haven't seen Apocalypto (and I'm not planning to), but I really loved POTC.