Hollywood is making final preparationsfor its biggest night of the year.The Academy Awards show takes place on Sunday.The awards, known as Oscars,are the American film industry's highest honors.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencesorganizes the event each year.The Academy has almost six thousand members.They work in the film industry as actors,writers, directors and so on.Members from each group choose their group's award nominees.All Academy members take partin choosing the nominees for Best Picture.The nominations for the eighty-fourth Academy Awards were announced last month.There are five nominees eachfor best actor and best actress.There are nine nominees for best picture.(Sound from "Hugo")"Hugo" leads all films with eleven nominations,including best picture.The film is set in nineteenth century Paris.It tells the story of a boy who lives hiddeninside a train station and keeps its clocks working.(Sound from "The Artist")"The Artist" is a French-made silent filmabout old time Hollywood.It tells about an actor who loses popularitywith the end of silent films."The Artist" received ten nominations,including best actor for its star, Jean DuJardin.Movies from five nations are competingfor the Best Foreign Language Oscar this year.(Sound from "A Separation")"Will you come," asks the wife."No, I will not," he says.She wants to leave Iran. He wants to stay.That is a scene from the film "A Separation."Writer and Director Asghar Farhadihas collected many awards for the film,including a Golden Globe.American George Clooney has been nominated for best actorfor his starring role in the film "The Descendants."Mr. Clooney was also nominated for his workon the screenplay for "The Ides of March."Octavia Spencer received a best supporting actress nominationfor her work in "The Help."The film tells the story of African-Americanswho worked for whites in the American southduring the nineteen sixties.The actress says she is excited about the awards ceremony.OCTAVIA SPENCER: "This is my first time to the party,and I'm going to enjoy every aspect of it.So I am. This smile is real."Earlier this month, the Academy recognizedsome of the inventors and engineers who make movies possible.One award went to Uwe Weber.He and Jurgen Noffke were honoredfor creating sensitive low-distortion lenses.These devices helped to make the imaginary world seenin the "Lord of the Rings" movies.Bob Nettmann and his team were honoredfor creating stabilizers for cameras and special lensesfor shooting while moving.The Academy said the lenses made it possibleto shoot movies from helicopters, cars and boats.Finally, Jonathan Erland received a special medalfor his service to the film industry.He says digital technology provides new waysto make and watch movies,even on computers and mobile devices.However, he says he still likes to watch themthe traditional way -- in a theater.JONATHAN ERLAND: "Even though we have lots of waysto look at movies at home,the preferred way is still to go to a theaterjust the way we've been doing it for 100 years."And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.