The race for Oscars glory comes to a climax tomorrow as Hollywood gathers for the 84th Academy Awards, with hit silent movie The Artist and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo leading down to the wire.

The show will inevitably have its share of surprises – flamboyant British actor Sasha Baron Cohen has already threatened one

After months of campaigning and dozens of lesser prizes, Tinseltown’s annual awards season draws to a close with the biggest honours of them all, the coveted golden statuettes.

Veteran Oscars host Billy Crystal will take the stage for the lavish spectacle, watched by hundreds of millions around the world, who also tune in for the red carpet fashion parade before the show itself.

“Tonight I might tweet winner of best supporting actor. Really, who can stop me?,” Mr Crystal, who has done the job eight times before, joked in a Twitter message on the eve of the annual Hollywood bonanza.

The show will inevitably have its share of surprises – flamboyant British actor Sacha Baron Cohen has already threatened one, and been warned by organisers against pulling a red carpet stunt to publicise his latest movie.

Glamour will also feature prominently, with last year’s best actress and actor Natalie Portman and Colin Firth the latest additions to presenters for the evening, along with Halle Berry, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez among others.

But on the serious business of the night, veteran Mr Scorsese’s visually rich 3D adventure Hugo goes into the show with the most nominations, at 11, with French-directed black-and-white The Artist snapping at its heels on 10.

Others hoping their name is called out for the top prize include Mr Scorsese’s fellow heavyweights Woody Allen for his comeback hit Midnight in Paris, and Steven Spielberg with War Horse.

A-listers George Clooney and Brad Pitt will meanwhile vie for best actor but face a possible upset from The Artist star Jean Dujardin, who has won critical and public acclaim for his role as a struggling silent-era movie star.

Mr Pitt is up for his role as coach Billy Beane in baseball movie Moneyball, while Mr Clooney has received widespread acclaim for his central role in The Descendants, a family drama set in Hawaii that is also talked about for best picture.

Mexican Demian Bichir is also in the best actor shortlist, as is Britain’s Gary Oldman for Cold War spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

On the female front Meryl Streep is among those hotly tipped for best actress for her powerful turn as former British premier Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, against notably cross-dressing Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs.

Rooney Mara, who plays messed-up Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo whose sleuthing skills make up for her lack of social ones, is also in the running.

But Oscar watchers say they could well all be beaten by Viola Davis, whose role as a black maid in The Help – set in Mississippi against the backdrop of 1960s civil rights struggle – has already won her a string of nominations.

The Help is also among the nine movies in the Best Picture category, along with War Horse, The Artist, Moneyball, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, Hugo and powerful 9/11 film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Also up for the top prize is Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which won the coveted Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Supporting actor top tips are Christopher Plummer in Beginners and Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud. Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn, Jonah Hill in Moneyball and Nick Nolte in Warrior are also in the race.

For best supporting actress there are two entries from The Help – Jessica Chastain as the ditzy but ostracized blonde Celia, and Octavia Spencer as her maid, but the prize could go to Berenice Bejo from The Artist.

Emmy-winning Melissa McCarthy is also in the running for her performance as plump and feisty – and, let’s face it, slightly gross – Megan in girls-night-out film Bridesmaids, along with Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs.

The easy foreign language frontrunner is Iran’s A Separation, which has already won a series of awards season prizes, up against Belgium’s Bullhead, Footnote (Israel), In Darkness (Poland) and Monsieur Lazhar (Canada).

What you might not know about the event

• Meryl Streep this year extends her lead as the most-nominated performer in Oscar history with her 17th nomination, for her role as former British premier Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.

• Billy Crystal will host this year’s Oscars show for the ninth time after actor Eddie Murphy pulled out at the last minute amid a row over anti-gay remarks by a producer, who also quit. Bob Hope hosted the Academy Awards the most times, 11 by himself and seven with co-hosts.

• Musician John Williams now has a total of 47 nominations, including two this year. He ranks second only to Walt Disney as the most-nominated individual in Oscar history.

• Iran’s A Separation is the first screenplay written in Farsi to receive an Oscars writing nomination.

• The Kodak Theatre, home to the Oscars for the last decade, is no longer called that, after the iconic photo company went bankrupt and pulled out of a sponsorship deal barely a week before this year’s show. The Academy this week began referring to the venue as the Hollywood and Highland Centre.

• German Oscar-nominated director Wim Wenders’s Pina, which showcases the work of the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, is the first 3D film nominated in the documentary feature category.

• The Artist is the 10th predominantly black-and-white film to be nominated for cinematography since 1967, when the separate black-and-white category was eliminated. Previously nominated: In Cold Blood (1967), The Last Picture Show (1971), Lenny (1974), Raging Bull (1981), Zelig (1983), Schindler’s List (1993), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), and The White Ribbon (2009).

• Woody Allen, with his best director and screenplay nominations for Midnight in Paris, passes Billy Wilder by becoming a seven-time double nominee for directing and writing on the same film.

Jot down your winning scores

Best picture
War Horse
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Artist
Money Ball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo

Best director
Michel Hazanavicius • The Artist
Martin Scorsese • Hugo
Terrence Malick • The Tree of Life
Woody Allen • Midnight in Paris
Alexander Payne • The Descendants

Best leading actor
Demian Bichir • A Better Life
George Clooney • The Descendants
Jean Dujardin • The Artist
Gary Oldman • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt • Moneyball

Best leading actress
Glenn Close • Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis • The Help
Rooney Mara • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep • The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams • My Week with Marilyn