Atonement nominated for Oscar

Julie Christie and Daniel Day-Lewis lead the British hopes for acting honours, along with Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and 13-year-old Irish schoolgirl Saoirse Ronan, nominated for best supporting actress in Atonement.

No Country For Old Men, a gory meditation on moral decline, and There Will Be Blood, a gritty drama about a pioneering California oilman, led the nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards Tuesday, organizers said.

Atonement, a British period romance revolving around unrequited passion and devastating lies, picked up seven nominations, as did the legal thriller Michael Clayton.

All four films were nominated for best picture, along with the quirky teen pregnancy comedy Juno.

The animated hit Ratatouille earned five nominations, while Juno and the French-language drama "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" scored four each.

The directors of No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Juno, Michael Clayton and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were also nominated.

In the lead actor race, Michael Clayton star George Clooney will compete against Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood, Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah and Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett received two nominations, for her lead role in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and for her supporting role as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.

The other lead-actress contenders were British veteran Julie Christie for Away From Her, French actress Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose, Laura Linney for The Savages and Canadian actress Ellen Page for Juno.

The 80th annual Academy Awards will be handed out in Hollywood 24 February. The Hollywood writers strike, now in its 12th week, could force organizers to change the format if the walkout is not resolved by then.

The Writers Guild of America has said it would protest the event, and the Screen Actors Guild reiterated Monday that its members would not cross the picket line to attend Hollywood's biggest night of the year.

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