Mo'Nique Receives an Oscar Nomination; 'Precious' Makes History

No surprise -- Mo'Nique received an Oscar nomination for her now-legendary performance as Mary Jones in Precious !  The BET talk show host has already won a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and countless other awards since the Lee Daniels film debuted at Sundance last year. Unless the Academy Awards pulls one of its legendary upsets, this Oscar is all Mo'Nique's, which would make her the fifth Black woman to win an Oscar for acting in 82 years (wow!).  She is now the 16th Black woman to receive an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

Other nominations include Morgan Freeman for best actor in Invictus and Gabourey Sidibe received a best actress nod for Precious .  Sidibe is only the eighth Black actress to receive a nod for lead actress.  Freeman has been nominated twice before for lead actor, once in 1989 for Driving Miss Daisy and another in 1994 for The Shawshank Redemption .  The Princess and the Frog received three nominations, one for best animated feature and two for best original song.

Precious racked up four more nominations (totaling six) and history was made.  Lee Daniels was nominated for best director, the first time since John Singleton 's Boyz n the Hood in 1991 that an African American received a nod in this category.  In addition, Precious earned a nomination for best adapted screenplay, which was honored to Geoffry Fletcher -- only the third time an African American received a nod in this category, which hasn't happened in over 25 years.  Precious was also nominated for best picture with nine other films -- this is the first time that a film with a predominately Black cast and Black director was nominated in this category.  The film also received a best editing nod.

Expect the usual suspects Oscar night -- Avatar for best film, Sandra Bullock for best actress and Mariah in a busty, tight dress.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will air March 7th, hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin .  Click here for a full list of nominees .

Check out the clip below of Halle Berry winning the Oscar for best actress in a leading role at the 74th Annual Academy Awards.