The Oscar nominees have been announced for the 2008 award show. While most are predictable, as always, there are a few that snuck in there.

Academy Award Oscar Nominees 2008

Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”




Even with concerns that the Academy Award show will not, in fact, go on, due to the writer’s strike, the nominations are still creating a buzz. “There Will Be Blood” and “No Country For Old Men” landed 8 nods apiece, followed by “Atonement” and “Michael Clayton” with 7 each.

The big categories’ hopefuls are below:

Best Actor

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

Best Actress

  • Cate Blanchett, in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
  • Julie Christie, in “Away from Her”
  • Marion Cotillar, in “La Vie en Rose”
  • Laura Linney, in “The Savages”
  • Ellen Page, in “Juno”

Best Supporting Actor

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

Best Supporting Actress

  • Cate Blanchett, in “I’m Not There”
  • Ruby Dee, in “American Gangster”
  • Saoirse Ronan, in “Atonement”
  • Amy Ryan, in “Gone Baby Gone”
  • Tilda Swinton, in “Michael Clayton”

Best Picture

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

And in case you care, here are my picks.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t really like “There Will Be Blood” - it was like two and half hours of climax with no resolution. But Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance was hands down the best I’ve seen in a long time. It’s tough, because I thought “In the Valley of Elah” was a really good film - thought-provoking and excellently done, but I’m giving the acting chops to Day-Lewis over Tommy Lee Jones.

Best Actress: abstention
The only one I’ve seen is “Juno”, and while Ellen Page was entertaining, I’m not calling her performance Oscar-worthy. So I don’t know who to vote for.

Best Supporting Actor: Tom Wilkinson
It’s hard to play crazy, but he did it pretty well.

Best Supporting Actress: Saoirse Ronan
Is Ruby Dee really nominated? I don’t see it. But Ronan was killer in “Atonement”, so I’m giving it to her. That’s not an easy role for someone so young.

Best Picture: “Atonement”
I loved “Juno”, but I’m not giving it an Oscar. It’s more of a Golden Globe. And “Michael Clayton” was great too, but again, didn’t scream Academy Award. It was a step up from a John Grisham film, but it ends there. I’ve already said my piece on “There Will Be Blood”. As for “No Country for Old Men”, I didn’t see it - because it left thousands of movie goers angry when it just ended out of nowhere (so I hear). “Atonement”, on the other hand, was fantastic. Horribly sad, but a beautifully tragic love story, and one of the hottest love scenes to date.