The Oscar nominations were announced today and there is no shortage of contenders. In fact, with no real juggernaut to deal with, the competition is more up in the air that most years.

The categories and nominations are...

Best Picture

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

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

• Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• Julie Christie for Away from Her
• Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose
• Laura Linney for The Savages
• Ellen Page for Juno

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

• Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men
• Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War
• Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild
• Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton

• Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There
• Ruby Dee for American Gangster
• Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
• Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone
• Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton

• Brad Bird for Ratatouille
• Diablo Cody for Juno
• Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton
• Tamara Jenkins for The Savages
• Nancy Oliver for Lars and the Real Girl

• Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
• Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men
• Christopher Hampton for Atonement
• Ronald Harwood for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Sarah Polley for Away from Her

• No End In Sight
• Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
• Sicko
• Taxi to the Dark Side
• War/Dance

• Persepolis
• Ratatouille
• Surf's Up

• I Met the Walrus
• Madame Tutli-Putli
• Même les Pigeons vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven)
• My Love (Moya Lyubov)
• Peter & the Wolf

• At Night
• Il Supplente (The Substitute)
• Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
• Tanghi Argentini
• The Tonto Woman

• Freeheld
• La Corona (The Crown)
• Salim Baba
• Sari's Mother

• 12 (Russia)
• Beaufort (Israel)
• The Counterfeiters (Germany)
• Katyn (Poland)
• Mongol (Kazakhstan)

• August Rush for "Raise It Up"
• Enchanted for "Happy Working Song"
• Enchanted for "So Close"
• Enchanted for "That's How You Know"
• Once for "Falling Slowly"

• Marco Beltrami for 3:10 to Yuma
• Michael Giacchino for Ratatouille
• James Newton Howard for Michael Clayton
• Alberto Iglesias for The Kite Runner
• Dario Marianelli for Atonement

• The Bourne Ultimatum
• No Country for Old Men
• Ratatouille
• There Will Be Blood
• Transformers

• 3:10 to Yuma
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Ratatouille
• There Will Be Blood
• Transformers

• His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• Transformers

• La Vie en Rose
• Norbit
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

• The Bourne Ultimatum
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Into the Wild
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

• American Gangster
• Atonement
• His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• There Will Be Blood

• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Atonement
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

• Across the Universe
• Atonement
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• La Vie en Rose
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

• The Oscar nominations were announced earlier in the day and now that we've had time to digest the nominations, the surprises, the omissions we can... zzzzzzzzzzz... Sorry, nodded off there. No offense to those who were nominated, but for a year with no clear favorite destined to walk home with a mountain of awards, there were not a lot of surprises.
• Some are calling No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood the two big winners as each film earned 8 nominations. However, while Michael Clayton managed 7 nominations, it did better in the more prestigious categories including earning three nominations for acting alone.
• Juno had its best showing since the Independent Spirit Awards, pulling in four high prestige nominations. This includes more than just the usual trio for best picture, best actress for Ellen Page, and best original screenplay for Diablo Cody as Jason Reitman, who has been unfairly overlooked for most of the Awards Season, picked up first Oscar nomination.
• Ratatouille picked up five nominations, which is huge for an animated film and it has to be seen as the odds on favorite to walk away with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
• On a similar note... Surf's Up? Really? The Simpsons Movie earned much better reviews and a bigger box office, which should have given it an advantage.
• The Savages earned two nominations, but Philip Seymour Hoffman did not earn either of them. In fact, that is probably the biggest shock on this list. (He did earn a Best Supporting Actor nod, so he wasn't completely shut out.)
• Away from Her was Sarah Polley's directorial debut, and it picked up two nominations. This bodes very well for the rest of her career behind the camera.
• Enchanted picked up three nominations, all for best song. Vote splitting could cost it the hardware, but if I were to bet, I would say "That's How You Know" will be the winner.
• On a side note, Alan Menken's three nominations for Enchanted is not a record for him as he earned three nominations for Aladdin and The Little Mermaid and four nominations for Beauty and the Beast.
• All five films up for Best Documentary have a political twist to them, which is unusual. In fact, Sicko might be less political than the average in that category.
• Wouldn't it be ironic if Norbit won an Oscar?

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2008-01-22