Juno, Michael Clayton Among Top Oscar Nominees

George Clooney and 20-year-old Juno star Ellen Page woke up to great news on Tuesday – they are among the top nominees for the 80th annual Academy Awards, announced at dawn in Beverly Hills.

Clooney is up for Best Actor for Michael Clayton, which was also nominated for its direction, screenplay and as Best Picture. Juno, meanwhile, is the little picture that could. The comedy about a pregnant teen scored a Best Actress nod for Page and is also in the running for top film, director and script.

Previous Oscar winner, for The Aviator, Cate Blanchett pulled a neat hat trick this year, earning a nod as Best Actress for Elizabeth and another as Best Supporting Actress, for I’m Not There.

Leading the pack, with eight nominations each, are Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Following, with seven nominations each, are Atonement and Michael Clayton.

Besides Clooney, the Best Actor nominees are Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah, Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood and Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises.

In the running with Blanchett and Page for Best Actress are Julie Christie for Away From Her, Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose and Laura Linney for The Savages.

Besides Clayton and Juno, the Best Picture nominees are Atonement, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.

Overlooked in that top category was the Golden Globe best musical Sweeney Todd. Actresses who didn’t make the cut were Helena Bonham Carter in that film, as well as Nikki Blonsky in Hairspray, Jodie Foster in The Brave One and, most glaringly, Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart.

Will There Be An Oscars?

The big question, besides who will win, remains, will the Oscars even take place, or will they go the way of the low-rated Golden Globes, which on Jan. 13 replaced the glittery ceremony with a brief press conference to announce the results.

Oscar’s future depends on results from the bargaining table where Hollywood writers and studio heads and producers seek to resolve the Writers Guild strike that began Nov. 5 and has crippled the industry.

Should the dust in the dispute settle and the show go on, the Oscars will air live on ABC Sunday, Feb. 24, from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre.

The Daily Show star Jon Stewart, who emceed the awards two years ago, is slated to host again this year, though on Monday the New York Post reported the Comedy Central star has no intention of crossing a picket line, if one still exists by Oscar night. A rep for Stewart did not return a request for comment.

On Tuesday, to show support for the writers, more than 30 award winners – among them, actors Blythe Danner and Celeste Holm and writer-actor Tina Howe – plan to gather in New York City to send a message to the industry: “Awards are nice, but we’d rather the writers get a fair contract.” The Writers Guild of America East is behind the demonstration.

Speaking for the Academy, a rep told the Post, “We are moving forward with our plans to do the show at the Kodak Theater on Feb. 24 with 3,300 people in the audience and many millions watching on TV.”

The major nominees are …

Best Picture

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

Best Actor

George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

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 Supporting Actor

Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
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

Best Director

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

Best Original Screenplay

Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Ratatouille (written by Brad Bird; story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird)
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

Best Adapted Screenplay

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

Foreign Language Film

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

Animated Feature

Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf’s Up

Art Direction

American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood

Cinematography

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Costume Design

Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Film Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Music (Score)

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

Music (Song)

“Falling Slowly,” from Once: Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song,” from Enchanted: Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up,” from August Rush: Nominees to be determined
“So Close,” from Enchanted: Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“That’s How You Know,” from Enchanted:Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz