2008 Oscar Nominees Announced

The 80^th Annual Academy Awards will be held live on February 24, 2008 at 8 p.m. EST. Actor and actress Oscar nominees attend the awards in hopes that they will be receive golden statue of success - the "Academy Award of Merit". The Oscar ceremony for the 2007 outstanding film achievements will be presented at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center.

Jon Stewart, host and executive producer of Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, will be the host for the Academy Awards for the second time. Producer Gil Cates said, "Jon was a terrific host for the 78^th awards. He is smart, quick, funny, loves movies and is a great guy. What else could one ask for?" The "Red Carpet" event before the Academy Awards seems to almost be as important as the awards themselves. Extensive coverage of before the Oscars, who is dressed the best and worst, are highly publicized.

Some of the most popular category nominations for the 2008 Oscar nominations include (I have bolded who my favorites are to win!):

Performance by an actor in a leading role

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"

Performance by an actress in a leading role nominees

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

Best animated feature film of the year nominees

"Persepolis"
"Ratatouille"
"Surf's Up"

Best motion picture of the year nominees

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

Original screenplay nominees

"Juno"
"Lars and the Real Girl"
"Michael Clayton"
"Ratatouille"
"The Savages"

There are some terrific movies, actors and actresses in the running this year and it will be exciting to see who wins in each category! So now you can pick your favorites and plan to be in front of the television on February 24^th for the 80^th Annual Academy Awards!

80^th Academy Awards Complete Category List:

Performance by an actor in a leading role

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"

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

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"

Performance by an actress in a leading role

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

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

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 animated feature film of the year

"Persepolis"
"Ratatouille"
"Surf's Up"

Achievement in art direction

"American Gangster": Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
"Atonement": Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
"The Golden Compass": Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street": Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
"There Will Be Blood": Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Achievement in 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

Achievement in 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": Coleen Atwood

Achievement in directing

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

Best documentary feature

"No End in Sight", A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience", A Documentary Group Production: Richard E. Robbins
"Sicko", A Dog Eat Dog Films Production: Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara
"Taxi to the Dark Side", An X-Ray Production: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
"War/Dance", A Shine Global and Fine Films Production: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best documentary short subject

"Freeheld" A Lieutenant Films Production: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
"La Corona (The Crown)" A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production: Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
"Salim Baba" A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production: Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
"Sari's Mother" (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production: James Longley

Achievement in film editing

"The Bourne Ultimatum": Christopher Rouse
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly": Juliette Welfling
"Into the Wild": Jay Cassidy
"No Country for Old Men": Roderick Jaynes
"There Will Be Blood": Dylan Tichenor

Best foreign language film of the year

"Beaufort" Israel
"The Counterfeiters" Austria
"Katyn" Poland
"Mongol" Kazakhstan
"12" Russia

Achievement in makeup

"La Vie en Rose": Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
"Norbit": Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuiji
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End": Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

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

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

"Falling Slowly" from "Once" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" from "August Rush" (Warner Bros.): Nominees to be determined
"So Close" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

Best motion picture of the year

"Atonement", A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
"Juno", A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
"Michael Clayton", A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
"No Country for Old Men", A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"There Will Be Blood", A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Best animated short film

"I Met the Walrus", A Kids & Explosions Production: Josh Raskin
"Madame Tutli-Putli", A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
"Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)", A BUF Compagnie Production Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)", A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production Alexander Petrov
"Peter & the Wolf", A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Best live action short film

"At Night" A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production: Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)", A Frame by Frame Italia Production: Andrea Jublin
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)", A Karé Production: Philippe Pollet-Villard
"Tanghi Argentini", An Another Dimension of an Idea Production: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
"The Tonto Woman", A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production: Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Achievement in sound editing

"The Bourne Ultimatum": Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
"No Country for Old Men": Skip Lievsay
"Ratatouille": Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
"There Will Be Blood": Matthew Wood
"Transformers": Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Achievement in sound mixing

"The Bourne Ultimatum": Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
"No Country for Old Men": Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
"Ratatouille": Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
"3:10 to Yuma": Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
"Transformers": Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in 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

Adapted screenplay

"Atonement", Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
"Away from Her", Written by Sarah Polley
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
"No Country for Old Men", Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood", Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Original screenplay

"Juno", Written by Diablo Cody
"Lars and the Real Girl", Written by Nancy Oliver
"Michael Clayton", Written by Tony Gilroy
"Ratatouille", Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
"The Savages", Written by Tamara Jenkins