AirLockAlpha.com

With voting set to begin just weeks from now for the 10th Portal Awards, Airlock Alpha has released what is known as its "long list" of potential nominees, where the final five in each of the 14 categories will be chosen from.

The list was compiled over the last three months by the 2009 Portal Awards International Nominating Committee, which includes genre-related television shows, movies and actors who were active on American televisions and movie theaters between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009.

Among the potential nominees included in the long list, which can be found by clicking here are some familiar names like Edward James Olmos from "Battlestar Galactica" and Summer Glau from "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" as well as some new names like "Fringe" and even Whoopi Goldberg, who had a guest stint on the short-lived ABC series "Life On Mars."

"I think when you see the final nominees announced June 15, there will be some tremendous surprises," said Michael Hinman, the site coordinator for Airlock Alpha who founded the awards in 1999 as the Genre Awards. "You always go into each year with an idea of who will be nominated and who will be left on the cutting room floor ... but as always, the committee we pulled together had some interesting choices that you definitely will see in the final list. Every name you see on the long list has a real chance of making the final five."

The Portal Awards was renamed earlier this year when Quantum Global Media Inc., the parent corporation of Airlock Alpha, sold its "SyFy" brand to NBC Universal. All aspects of the previous site, which was founded in 1998, was rebranded, including the parent corporation's name.

"The new name not only reflects another way to look at an airlock, but also pays homage to our original name," Hinman said. "Genre Awards was always kind of generic sounding, and it's nice to finally have something we could almost jokingly call the Porties."

Outside of the name, not much else will change in the awards. The 14 categories that will be used in 2009 remain the same from last year, and voting rules will still allow each reader to vote once per day for 30 days beginning June 25.

For the first time, however, Airlock Alpha is releasing details of the overall nominating committee voting ahead of the final nominee list. The site is revealing which of the potential nominees received at least one first place vote from the committee. While such a vote would definitely increase the chances of a potential nominee to make it to the final five, such a first place vote does not guarantee anything.

"Like I said, there were a lot of names we all thought would be in the final list not actually there," Hinman said.

For Best Actor/Television, Olmos and "Doctor Who's" David Tennant joined Matthew Fox from "Lost" in getting first place votes, while in the Best Actress/Television category, five people received first place votes: Patricia Arquette from "Medium," Jennifer Love Hewlett from "Ghost Whisperer," Evangeline Lilly from "Lost," Mary McDonnell from "Battlestar Galactica' and Anna Torv from "Fringe."

For Best Supporting Actor/Television, first place votes went to Misha Collins from "Supernatural," Jeremy Davies from "Lost," Michael Emerson from "Lost," Enver Gjokaj from "Dollhouse," Michael Hogan and Alessandro Juliani from "Battlestar Galactica," John Noble from "Fringe" and Sam Trammell from "True Blood."

In the Best Supporting Actress/Television category, first place votes went to eight people including Amy Acker from "Dollhouse," Laura San Giacomo from "Saving Grace," Glau, Dichen Lachman from "Dollhouse," Shirley Manson from "Sarah Connor," Elizabeth Mitchell from "Lost," Grace Park and Katee Sackhoff from BSG, and Rutina Wesley from "True Blood."

For Best Young Actor, first place votes went to Sterling Beaumon from "Lost," Thomas Dekker from "Sarah Connor," Jordan Hinson from "Eureka," Maria Lark from "Medium," Hayden Panettiere from "Heroes" and Anton Yelchin from "Star Trek." Only two people received first place votes for Best Guest/Television: Leonard Nimoy from the "Fringe" episode "There's More Than One of Everything" and Alan Tudyk, who actually received first-place votes for two episodes of "Dollhouse": "Briar Rose" and "Omega."

In the Best Episode/Television category, a number of shows received first place votes including "Sarah Connor," "Battlestar Galactica" and "Supernatural" while the Best Series/Television included first-place votes for only "Battlestar Galactica," "Dollhouse," "Lost" and "Supernatural."

On the movie side, "The Dark Knight" and "Star Trek" both got expected first-place votes, but they were joined surprisingly by "Day the Earth Stood Still." Heath Ledger from "Dark Knight" and Zachary Quinto from "Star Trek" received top votes in the Best Actor/Movie category while five women split up first place votes in the Best Actress/Movie category, including Cate Blanchett from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Moon Bloodgood from "Terminator: Salvation."

In all, there were 301 names that make up the long list, but only 70 can make the final cut, which will be announced June 15.

For a complete list of all the potential nominees, click here.