Awards Features

In the picture race, few would argue that "Michael Clayton," "There Will Be Blood" or "No Country for Old Men" are surprises. Yet, supporters of "Juno" and, especially, "Atonement" were holding their collective breath when the announcements were made Jan. 22.

"Atonement," despite its Golden Globe crown and BAFTA attention, failed to top most, if any, guild and critics kudos and didn't earn an ensemble nomination from the SAG Awards, making its Oscar inclusion far from a sure thing. So garnering a spot in the top five certainly felt rewarding to the folks over at Focus Features.

The director and picture categories often closely overlap, and all of the nominated films' helmers will be competing against one another, except for "Atonement" director Joe Wright, who missed the cut. Of the contenders for director, only Joel Coen is a repeat nominee.

Momentum began in May for Julian Schnabel, who was named top director at Cannes for his film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. also awarded him best helmer, though few other orgs gave him much love.

Interestingly, the Coen brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson and Tony Gilroy have been nominated for their screenplay as well, and the Coens and Anderson are previous screenplay nominees. Sarah Polley's adaptation of "Away From Her" was on the radar of very few orgs, but the Academy took notice.

The acting races, which will be closely examined in Daily Variety's Eye on the Oscars: Actor/Actress issue Feb. 11, saw a mix of the younger (Saoirse Ronan of "Atonement") and older (Ruby Dee of "American Gangster" and Hal Holbrook of "Into the Wild") along with a few who've been down this road a few times before -- including Cate Blanchett, Daniel Day-Lewis and Julie Christie, who's looking for her second statue after triumphing 42 years ago in "Darling."

The biggest surprise nomination might've come in animation, where "Surf's Up" rode a wave of voter support that caught many off guard. Although the $58 million in summer box office is far from paltry, it's certainly not what Sony had hoped for, and those who believe grosses play a big part in determining animation nominees were left shaking their heads. "The Simpsons" -- resigned to Oscar's sidelines -- earned a very healthy $183 million for Fox, and many onlookers thought Homer and Co. were a prohibitive choice to make the final cut.

There was plenty of consternation in the foreign-language and documentary categories regarding who had made the shortlist leading up to the nominations.

Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days" didn't carry much sway with the Academy, nor did Cannes Jury winner "Persepolis," though the latter did receive an animation nomination. Israeli foreign-language entry "Beaufort" garnered a prize at the Berlin Film Fest last February for top director (Joseph Cedar), and "The Counterfeiters" also unspooled at Berlin.

On the doc side, Michael Moore's "Sicko" won the Broadcast Film Critics Award while "No End in Sight" -- Charles Ferguson's look at how the U.S. got involved in Iraq -- took home the Jury Prize at Sundance a year ago and captured top doc honors with the folks at the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.