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BEVERLY HILLS, California: Crime thriller No Country
for Old Men and epic oil industry drama There Will Be Blood topped
the list of contenders for this year’s Oscars with eight
nominations each.
The films, both notable for their
dark, violent themes, edged out British historical drama Atonement
and legal thriller Michael Clayton” both earning seven nominations
each. The nominations were revealed in an early morning ceremony at
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Samuel Goldwyn
Theatre in Beverly Hills.
No Country for Old Men scored a
nomination for brothers Joel and Ethan Coen in the best director
category, as well as nods for best film, supporting actor and
adapted screenplay. The film, based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel of
the same name, tells the story of a drug deal gone wrong and the
murderous forces it unleashes.
There Will Be Blood also earned a
best picture nomination along with quirky comedy Juno, Atonement and
Michael Clayton.
The acting categories saw several
surprise entries, with Australian icon Cate Blanchett scoring a
double nomination in the best actress and best supporting actress
columns. Blanchett, an Oscar winner in 2005 for The Aviator, was
nominated as best actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and as best
supporting actress for her portrayal of Bob Dylan in I’m Not
There.
Blanchett’s rivals in the best
actress category include British veteran Julie Christie for her
performance as an Alzheimer’s sufferer in Away from Her and French
star Marion Cotillard, dazzling as tragic chanteuse Edith Piaf in La
Vie En Rose. Laura Linney of The Savages and Ellen Page of Juno also
scored lead actress nominations.
In the men’s category,
British-born Daniel Day-Lewis is the clear favorite for his towering
performance as a tyrannical oil prospector in There Will Be Blood.
Day-Lewis, an Oscar winner for My Left Foot, faces competition from
Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney for Michael Clayton and Johnny
Depp in Sweeney Todd. Two surprise entries—Tommy Lee Jones for In
the Valley of Elah and Viggo Mortensen for his performance as a
Russian mobster in Eastern Promises complete the nominees in the
lead actor category.
This year’s best director award
will see No Country’s Coen brothers up against There Will be
Blood’s Paul Thomas Anderson, who earned his fifth Oscar
nomination. Other contenders are Jason Reitman for Juno, Tony Gilroy
for Michael Clayton and Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the
Butterfly.
The best foreign film category
saw a first Oscar nomination from Kazakhstan with Mongol. Other
nominees included Israel’s Beaufort, Austria’s The
Counterfeiters, Katyn from Poland and 12 from Russia.
As has been the case in many
recent Oscars, the best documentary category was dominated by films
related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, scooping up three out
of five nominations. Charles Ferguson’s searing indictment of
post-invasion Iraq No End in Sight was nominated along with
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Richard E.
Robbins’s film about veterans returning from war.
Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark
Side, about a taxi driver who was arrested and detained at a US
military base in Afghanistan, was also nominated. Controversial
documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, an Oscar-winner in 2003 for
Bowling for Columbine, also earned a nomination for Sicko.
The Oscars are taking place this
year amid deep uncertainty over the Hollywood writer’s strike,
which has already forced the cancellation of the Golden Globes
earlier this month. Organizers are adamant that this year’s show
will go ahead as scheduled, despite fears of the event being
picketed by striking writers and possibly boycotted by sympathetic
actors.
Although informal negotiations
between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and producers were
reported to resume this week, the actors’ union warned on Monday
that its members would not cross picket lines set up at the Oscars.
“If the WGA strike continues
beyond the date of the Academy Awards, we anticipate that Screen
Actors Guild [SAG] members will continue to honor WGA picket
lines,” said SAG executive Doug Allen.
--AFP
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