The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its list of Oscar nominees in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Among the nominees were a few candidates from Europe.

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz landed one of the higher-profile nominations for best supporting actor. Waltz played Colonel Hans Landa in the Quentin Tarantino movie "Inglourious Basterds," set in France during the Second World War. His character is a cunning German colonel known for finding Jews hidden in occupied France.

The German movie "The White Ribbon" is one of five films in contention for the Oscar in the best foreign film category. "The White Ribbon" is a black-and-white film set in pre-First World War Germany, and won the Palme D'Or at last year's Cannes film festival.

It also won a Golden Globe for best foreign language film earlier this year. The film by director Michael Haneke is up against the French film "A Prophet," as well as films from Israel, Peru, and Argentina.

Germany last won the best foreign film Oscar in 2006 for "The Lives of Others," a film about a man working for the Stasi in East Germany. The German film "Nowhere in Africa" also won in 2002.

The Oscar winners will be announced at the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony on March 7 in Hollywood, California.

mz/ap/dpa
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar