2008 Oscar Nominees Announced

2008 Oscar nominees announced: The Academy Award (Oscar) nominations were announced on January 22. The show will go on as scheduled on February 24 at Hollywood's Kodak Theater, although there is some doubt as to how many Hollywood professionals will attend the ceremonies themselves due to the Writers' Guild strike, and their unwillingness to cross the picket lines and antagonize the writers.

There will be Blood and No Country for Old Men were the big winners in terms of nominations, coming away with eight nominations per movie. Cate Blanchett, a previous Oscar winner, was nominated both for Best Actress and for Best Supporting Actress. Tommy Lee Jones and Laura Linney were the only surprise nominees among the actors and actresses. The "take" in some of the comments sections I've read seems to be that the acting categories represented a "weak field."

Julie Christie (playing an Alzheimer's patient in Away from Her) and Marion Cotillard (playing Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose) seem to be in competition as the consensus favorites to win the Best Actress Oscar, while Javier Barden (No Country for Old Men) seems to be the favorite in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Kiera Knightley and James MacAvoy, the leads in Atonement, were snubbed, as was their director in that film, Joe Wright. Sean Penn, who directed Into the Wild, failed to get nominated as well. Helen Bonham Carter (A Mighty Heart0 and Angelina Jolie (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) joined their colleagues on the cutting-room floor of the virtual nominations room. The musical Hairspray received no nominations at all.

Best Picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Director
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

Best Actor
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises