Front-runner, The King's Speech, has also been nominated for its cinematography, editing, screenplay, music, production design, sound and visual effects.
The strong showing of "Dallas Buyers Club" across the board -- in addition to McConaughey and Leto, the movie won Oscar noms for picture, editing, screenplay and makeup and hair -- indicates a broad level of support throughout the academy for the film.
For another, the top prize usually goes to films that have nominations across multiple categories, chiefly in acting and in editing or screenplay or both, in addition to directing.
In January 1995, Thompson presented a draft to Lee, Doran, co-producer Laurie Borg, and others working on the production, and spent the next two months editing the screenplay based upon their feedback.
It won six awards including best film, director, original screenplay, editing, cinematography and sound.
The film was followed with The Social Network's three wins for adapted screenplay, editing and David Fincher's award for best director.
And last September, it took all the major awards (best picture, directing, screenplay, editing) in the Ophirs, Israel's version of the Oscars.
The director who plans the editing at the screenplay stage makes his decision as to the coverage of the scenes and characters at that stage and then shoots as planned.
At least when it comes to Natural Selection, director Robbie Pickering's debut, which won not just the grand jury and audience awards for narrative feature, but also best screenplay, editing, score and breakthrough performances for its two stars.
The movie, which chronicles a callow, illiterate Arab inmate's brutal education and rise to power during his six-year imprisonment, also won the awards for best original screenplay, editing, production design and cinematography.
"The Departed," of course, won picture, director, editing and adapted screenplay.
