Academy releases Oscar noms

by John P. Meyer

Amid continuing uncertainty as to whether the big-time televised awards gala will actually come off as planned (due to the ongoing writers' strike - damn writers!), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences today (Jan. 22) announced their nominations for the highest achievements in film for the year 2007.

There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men - both filmed in West Texas - received eight Oscar nominations each, while filmmakers involved with both Michael Clayton and Atonement can boast about their seven nominations.

In a tour de force of critical notice which demonstrates the depth of its cinematic treatment (or something), the Eddie Murphy multiple-character comedy Norbit scored noms in both the Razzies (announced yesterday) and the Oscars, showing up on the Academy's list in the category of Makeup (thanks to yeoman fat-suit service by Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji).

A listing of nominations in the major categories is provided below, with links to PegNews reviews of the movies (where available; linked from first reference only):

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 & Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Julie Christie, Away From Her

Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose

Laura Linney, The Savages

Ellen Page, Juno

BEST ACTOR

George Clooney, Michael Clayton

Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd

Tommy Lee Jones, In The Valley Of Elah

Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Casey Affleck, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War

Hal Holbrook, Into The Wild

Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There

Ruby Dee, American Gangster

Saoirse Ronan, Atonement

Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Diablo Cody, Juno

Nancy Oliver, Lars & The Real Girl

Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton

Brad Bird, Jim Capobianco and Jan Pinkava, Ratatouille

Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Christopher Hampton, Atonement

Sarah Polley, Away From Her

Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

Joel & Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Beaufort (Israel)

The Counterfeiters (Austria)

Katyn (Poland)

Mongol (Kazakhstan)

12 (Russia)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Persepolis

Ratatouille

Surf's Up

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Roger Deakins

Atonement, Seamus McGarvey

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Janusz Kaminski

No Country for Old Men, Roger Deakins

There Will Be Blood, Robert Elswit

COSTUME DESIGN

Across the Universe, Albert Wolsky

Atonement, Jacqueline Durran

Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Alexandra Byrne

La Vie en Rose, Marit Allen

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Colleen Atwood

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

No End in Sight

Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience

Sicko

Taxi to the Dark Side

War/Dance

FILM EDITING

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Into the Wild

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

MAKEUP

La Vie en Rose, Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald

Norbit, Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

ORIGINAL SCORE

Atonement, Dario Marianelli

The Kite Runner, Alberto Iglesias

Michael Clayton, James Newton Howard

Ratatouille, Michael Giacchino

3:10 to Yuma, Marco Beltrami

ORIGINAL SONG

"Falling Slowly" from Once

"Happy Working Song" from Enchanted

"Raise It Up" from August Rush

"So Close" from Enchanted

"That's How You Know" from Enchanted

VISUAL EFFECTS

The Golden Compass, Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier

Transformers, Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier