Two dramas receive eight Oscar nominations each

Two motion pictures have received eight Oscar nominations each Tuesday: “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood.” The nominations include best picture and best actor for Daniel Day and Javier Bardem.

Photo: Two dramas receive eight Oscar nominations each

Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men,” the film released in 2007 to critical acclaim. The motion picture received four Golden Globes nominations and won two Globes for best screenplay and best performance by an actor in a supporting role. The film is based on a 2005 novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. Set along the United States–Mexico border in 1980, the story concerns an illicit drug deal gone wrong in a remote desert location. The title comes from the poem "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats.

“There Will Be Blood” is a critically acclaimed 2007 Golden Globe-winning and BAFTA-nominated film inspired by Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! (1927). It stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano, and was written, produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Shooting began in mid-May 2006 in New Mexico and Marfa, Texas, with principal photography wrapping August 24, 2006. The first public screening was on September 29, 2007 at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. The film was released on December 26 2007, in New York and Los Angeles, and is set to gradually open in selected markets and in a limited number of theaters. Beginning January 18, 2008 the film played in the top 75 markets and in 389 theaters.

“Atonement” and legal drama “Michael Clayton” received seven Academy Awards nominations each. Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, the leader players in “Atonement” were left with no Oscar nominations.

Cate Blanchett had two nominations as best actress for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” and the Bob Dylan tale “I’m Not There.”

Other nominations include:

Best actor: Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will Be Blood"), Clooney "(Michael Clayton"), Johnny Depp ("Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"), Tommy Lee Jones ("In the Valley of Elah") and Viggo Mortensen ("Eastern Promises").

Best actress: Marion Cotillard ("La Vie En Rose"), Ellen Page ("Juno"), Julie Christie ("Away from Her"), Cate Blanchett ("Elizabeth: The Golden Age") and Laura Linney ("The Savages").

Best supporting actor: Javier Bardem ("No Country for Old Men"), Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Charlie Wilson's War"), Casey Affleck ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"), Hal Holbrook ("Into the Wild") and Wilkinson ("Michael Clayton").

Best supporting actress: Ruby Dee ("American Gangster"), Blanchett ("I'm Not There"), Saoirse Ronan ("Atonement"), Amy Ryan ("Gone Baby Gone") and Swinton ("Michael Clayton").

Best director are Ethan and Joel Coen ("No Country for Old Men"), Anderson ("There Will Be Blood"), Julian Schnabel ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), Jason Reitman ("Juno") and Gilroy ("Michael Clayton").

The Academy Awards ceremony will take place February 24 at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.