The day the entire movie community has been waiting for has finally arrived: Nominations for the 2008 Academy Awards were announced this morning by Oscar winner Kathy Bates and President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sid Ganis. The awards will be given out on Sunday, February 24.
While film fans have no doubt expected some of the following honorees, the Academy did throw in a few surprises for its audience including Tommy Lee Jones, nominated in the Best Actor category for his role in the war drama In The Valley of Elah and the Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Sarah Polley’s Away From Her, a movie she also directed.
For the biggest prize of the night, the Academy’s Best Motion Picture of the Year award, the contenders are: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. In addition to Jones, the Best Actor nominees include George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Johnny Depp and Viggo Mortensen.
Best Actress nominees for 2008 are: Julie Christie, Marion Cotillard, Laura Linney, Ellen Page and Cate Blanchett, also nominated for her supporting role in I’m Not There. Blanchett’s peers in the supporting category are all first-time nominees and include: Ruby Dee (American Gangster), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton).
No surprises in the Best Supporting Actor category, with nominees Casey Affleck, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hal Holbrook, Tim Wilkinson and Javier Bardem ready to take home an award. Nor were there surprises in the Best Achievement in Directing category, who, with the exception of Juno‘s Jason Reitman, were all nominated this year by the Directors Guild of America. Alongside Reitman, potential winners include Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) and Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
For the complete list of nominees and more information on the 2008 Academy Awards, visit www.oscars.org.
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