[attach id=238569 size="medium"]Daniel Day-Lewis with his Bafta award for best actor for his role as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. Photo: PA[/attach]

Hollywood is gearing up for the Oscars this weekend with Daniel Day-Lewis a hot favourite to complete a historic hat-trick.

The actor is nominated for best actor for his performance in US historical drama Lincoln – his fifth nomination in the category which he has already won twice – in 1989 for My Left Foot and in 2007 for There Will be Blood.

Another win will make him the first man to win three best actor Oscars – and the bookmakers expect him to take the award with William Hill offering odds of 1-50 on him triumphing.

He has already picked up a Golden Globe and a Bafta for his performance as the doomed US President who steered his country through the American Civil War.

Day-Lewis is shortlisted alongside Les Misérables star Hugh Jackman, Denzel Washington for Flight, Joaquin Phoenix for The Master and Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook.

Lincoln is also nominated in the best picture category, alongside Ben Affleck’s Argo, set during the Iran hostage crisis, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Quentin Tarantino’s Spaghetti Western Django Unchained.

Life of Pi, Amour, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty complete the shortlist.