Eddie Redmayne's awards season success will hit even greater heights if he carries off the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking in the hit film The Theory Of Everything.

The actor, whose mantelpiece is already laden down with a Bafta, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor's Guild award, is favourite to carry off the statuette.

The winners will be announced in the early hours of Monday morning UK time in a ceremony at The Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, hosted by How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris.

HeraldScotland TV reviewer Julie McDowall is staying up all night (dressed in a posh frock, naturally) and will be posting her verdict in the early hours.

Redmayne is up against another Brit - and another portrayal of a pioneering scientist - in the shape of Benedict Cumberbatch, who was nominated for his performance as codebreaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.

Also in the running are Steve Carell, nominated for Foxcatcher, American Sniper's Bradley Cooper and Birdman's Michael Keaton.

Redmayne's co-star in The Theory Of Everything, Felicity Jones, and Gone Girl's Rosamund Pike are both nominated for the best actress gong.

Jones, who got her big break in Radio 4's rural soap The Archers, played Professor Hawking's first wife Jane whose memoir of life with him inspired the film.

They face competition from Reese Witherspoon, Julianne Moore and Marion Cotillard.

Keira Knightley, who stars alongside Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, is nominated for the best supporting actress award alongside Oscars veteran Meryl Streep - who is shortlisted for a 19th time.

The other nominees are Patricia Arquette, Laura Dern and Emma Stone.

The nominees for best supporting actor are Robert Duvall, Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo and JK Simmons.

Both The Theory Of Everything and The Imitation Game are in contention to be named best film along with American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Selma and Whiplash.

Among those who were tipped for a nomination but missed out are actors Ralph Fiennes and David Oyelowo, both critically acclaimed for their work in The Grand Budapest Hotel and Selma respectively, and former Friends star Jennifer Aniston, also missed out despite impressing critics with her performance in Cake.

Other notable nominations include two for French composer Alexandre Desplat, who is recognised for his original score for The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Imitation Game.

Another Brit - cinematographer Dick Pope - was nominated for his work on Mike Leigh's Mr Turner and inadvertently became an online sensation when Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs pronounced his name "Dick Poop".

Bookmaker Coral said Redmayne is odds on favourite for the Best Actor award at 3-10, while Julianne Moore is the overwhelming favourite for the Best Actress gong at 1-100.

Meanwhile, British hopefuls Rosamund Pike and Felicity Jones are 25-1 and 50-1, respectively, to cause an upset.

Birdman remains favourite at 4-6 to land Best Picture, while Boyhood is second best at 5-4 and the odds on American Sniper have fallen from 33-1 into 16-1.

Coral spokesman John Hill said: "Our odds suggest British actor Eddie Redmayne is set to follow up his Baftas success in the Best Actor category, Birdman is favourite to win the Best Picture, while Julianne Moore is the shortest price in any of the awards to come away with the Best Actress gong."

Film critic Damon Smith's opinion:

BEST PICTURE

Will win: Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)

Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Critics' darling Boyhood has fallen by the wayside in recent weeks, allowing the giddy show business satire Birdman to gallop to the front of the pack. It's an obvious choice - a back-slapping celebration of Hollywood, celebrity and the creative process - but if Oscar voters chose unparalleled quality over self-congratulation, they would check into Wes Anderson's visually stunning and hilarious murder mystery The Grand Budapest Hotel instead.

BEST DIRECTOR

Will win: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance))

Should win: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance))

Richard Linklater's 12-year devotion to Boyhood is certainly admirable and Wes Anderson certainly worked his magic behind the camera in The Grand Budapest Hotel but Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu should become the second Mexican director in succession to be ushered to the podium for his bravura direction of Birdman. Stitched together to resemble a single fluid take, the film is a technical master class with Inarritu at the helm.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Will win: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory Of Everything)

Should win: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory Of Everything)

While Michael Keaton would be the sentimental choice as the comeback kid for his eye-catching work in Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance), Redmayne's jaw-dropping, transformative performance as Stephen Hawking is in a league of its own, recalling Daniel Day-Lewis's deserved first Oscar win for My Left Foot. He was 32. Redmayne has recently turned 33. Destiny is surely calling.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Will win: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

Should win: Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

With her fifth nomination, Moore will finally secure a shiny golden statuette for her mantelpiece. She is long overdue and really should have won in 2003 for Far From Heaven when Nicole Kidman stole her thunder. On merit, Cotillard's heart-breaking turn as a desperate woman threatened with redundancy, who must persuade work colleagues to reject a monetary bonus and keep her on instead, deserves the glittering prize.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Will win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Should win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Of all the marvels in Damien Chazelle's exhilarating second directorial feature Whiplash, J.K. Simmons's electrifying portrayal of a monstrous teacher Terence Fletcher, who terrorises a 19-year-old drumming student, sears deepest into the memory. The cold, calculated manner in which Simmons verbally and physically abuses sweat-drenched co-stars, who don't meet his character's warped idea of perfection, is delicious.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Will win: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Should win: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Strictly speaking, Arquette is the lead actress in Richard Linklater's long-gestated passion project, which should have been entitled Motherhood considering that her plucky matriarch is the emotional fulcrum for the 12 years of on-screen tears and tantrums. She has collected virtually every critics' award and plaudit for the role en route to the Oscars and will be unstoppable on the night.

The Oscars in numbers

6,124 - members of the academy who are eligible to vote

50 - Oscar statuettes created for the ceremony

2,951 - Oscar statuettes handed out since the ceremony began

13.5 - the height in inches of the statuettes (34.3cm)

2 - the number of people who know the results before the envelopes are opened

500 - the length of the red carpet outside the Dolby Theatre in feet

78 - photographers on the red carpet last year

83 - countries submitting foreign language films

225 - countries where the Oscar telecast will be seen

43.7 million - Americans who watched last year's ceremony

19 - the number of times Bob Hope hosted the awards - a record