Eddie Redmayne has been nominated for his second consecutive best actor Oscar.
He will compete with Leonardo DiCaprio, who received a nod for revenge epic The Revenant, which leads the pack with 12 nominations.
Redmayne secured his nomination for his role as a transgender artist in The Danish Girl and will also compete with Irish actor Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs, Matt Damon for The Martian and Bryan Cranston for Trumbo.
Redmayne took home the Academy Award last year for his performance as Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything.
DiCaprio's British co-star Tom Hardy received a best supporting actor nomination in a category dominated by talent from the UK.
There were also nods for Welsh actor Christian Bale for The Big Short and Wolf Hall star Mark Rylance for Bridge Of Spies. They will compete with Sylvester Stallone for Creed and Mark Ruffalo for Spotlight.
Charlotte Rampling, 69, secured a best actress nod for her role in 45 Years, as did Irish actress Saoirse Ronan, 21, for Brooklyn, in which she plays a homesick immigrant in New York.
Ronan was previously nominated when she was just 13 for her role in Atonement in 2007.
The actresses will compete against former Oscar winners Cate Blanchett, who is nominated for Carol, and Jennifer Lawrence, for Joy, as well as Golden Globe winner Brie Larson, who is nominated for Room.
Kate Winslet landed a nomination for best supporting actress for her role as Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs. The British star was the surprise winner in the category at the Golden Globes and will be up against Blanchett's co-star Rooney Mara for Carol, as well as Redmayne's co-star in The Danish Girl, Alicia Vikander.
Spotlight actress Rachel McAdams and Jennifer Jason Leigh also landed nominations in the category.
Sam Smith has been nominated for the best original song Oscar for Writing's On The Wall, the theme to James Bond film Spectre.
The Grammy-winning singer recently won a Golden Globe for the track alongside his writing partner Jimmy Napes.
They will compete with singles including Lady Gaga's track Til It Happens To You from The Hunting Ground and The Weeknd's Earned It from Fifty Shades Of Grey.
Financial drama The Big Short, espionage thriller Bridge Of Spies and revenge epic The Revenant will compete with Spotlight, Room, The Martian, Brooklyn and Mad Max: Fury Road for best picture.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was not excluded from the nominations. It secured nods for film editing, original score, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects.
Irish director Lenny Abrahamson secured a nomination for best director for Room, about a young woman and her son living in confinement.
The Big Short's director Adam McKay also received a nod, alongside George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road, Spotlight director Tom McCarthy and Alejandro G Inarritu for The Revenant.
The nominations were announced by Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, actor John Krasinski and directors Guillermo Del Toro and Ang Lee at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.
Disney Pixar film Inside Out secured a nomination for best animated feature, alongside Anomalisa, Shaun The Sheep Movie, Boy And The World and When Marnie Was There.
The documentary about Amy Winehouse, called Amy, is nominated for best documentary feature, as is What Happened, Miss Simone? about singer Nina Simone, The Look Of Silence, Cartel Land and Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight For Freedom.
British author Alex Garland was honoured for his original screenplay for Ex Machina.
Also competing in the best original screenplay category are Bridge Of Spies, Inside Out, Spotlight and Straight Outta Compton.
British author Nick Hornby received a nomination in the adapted screenplay category for Brooklyn, while Irish author Emma Donoghue got a nod for her adaptation of her own novel Room.
They will compete against Drew Goddard for his adaptation of Alex Weir's novel The Martian, Phyllis Nagy for Carol, which is based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price Of Salt, and Charles Randolph and Adam McKay for The Big Short, which is based on Michael Lewis's book of the same name.
The 88th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on February 28.