80th Academy Awards® Nominations SIDEBARS

For the second year in a row, an American director has been nominated for directing a foreign-language film. Last year, Clint Eastwood was nominated for the Japanese-language Letters from Iwo Jima; this year, Julian Schnabel is nominated for the French-language The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.


The Directing nomination for Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men marks the third time two credited directors were nominated for the same film. The first was in 1961 when Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins won Oscars® for directing West Side Story. The second time was when Warren Beatty and Buck Henry were nominated for directing Heaven Can Wait (1978).


Nominations for Best Picture and Directing this year place Ethan Coen and Joel Coen in the select company of individuals who have received nominations in four different categories (not necessarily in the same year): Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick, Warren Beatty and Kenneth Branagh. This includes the Coens’ pseudonymous Film Editing nominations as Roderick Jaynes.


With their nominations for Best Picture, Directing and Writing, and their nomination for Film Editing under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen join Warren Beatty and Alan Menken as the only individuals with four nominations for a single film. Warren Beatty accomplished that twice, with Best Picture, Directing, Leading Actor and Writing nominations for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981); Alan Menken received four nominations in two music categories for Beauty and the Beast (1991).


In the acting categories, nine are first-time nominees. The other ten include six previous Oscar® winners.


Marion Cotillard has been nominated for a foreign-language performance. Four performers have won Academy Awards for roles using spoken languages other than English. They are Sophia Loren (1961, Actress in Two Women), Robert De Niro (1974, Supporting Actor in The Godfather Part II), Roberto Benigni (1998, Actor in Life Is Beautiful) and Benicio Del Toro (2000, Supporting Actor in Traffic). In addition, Marlee Matlin received the 1986 Leading Actress award for a performance almost entirely in American Sign Language.

The other nominees have been Marcello Mastroianni (1962, Actor in Divorce - Italian Style; 1977, Actor in A Special Day and 1987, Actor in Dark Eyes), Sophia Loren (1964, Actress in Marriage Italian Style), Anouk Aimee (1966, Actress in A Man and a Woman), Ida Kaminska (1966, Actress in The Shop on Main Street), Liv Ullmann (1972, Actress in The Emigrants and 1976, Actress in Face to Face), Valentina Cortese (1974, Supporting Actress in Day for Night), Isabelle Adjani (1975, Actress in The Story of Adele H. and 1989, Actress in Camille Claudel), Marie-Christine Barrault (1976, Actress in Cousin, Cousine), Giancarlo Giannini (1976, Actor in Seven Beauties), Ingrid Bergman (1978, Actress in Autumn Sonata), Max von Sydow (1988, Actor in Pelle the Conqueror), Gerard Depardieu (1990, Actor in Cyrano de Bergerac), Graham Greene (1990, Supporting Actor in Dances With Wolves), Catherine Deneuve (1992, Actress in Indochine), Massimo Troisi (1995, Actor in The Postman [Il Postino]), Fernanda Montenegro (1998, Actress in Central Station), Catalina Sandino Moreno (2004, Actress in Maria Full of Grace), Penélope Cruz (2006, Actress in Volver), and Rinko Kikuchi (2006, Supporting Actress in Babel).


Cate Blanchett, who received her first Academy Award® nomination in 1998 for her leading role as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth, is the fifth performer (and first woman) nominated for playing the same role in two different films, following Bing Crosby as Father O’Malley in Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945); Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986); Peter O’Toole as Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968); and Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). Of these, only Bing Crosby and Paul Newman won Oscars (in 1944 and 1986, respectively).


Cate Blanchett’s two acting nominations mark the eleventh time performers received nominations in both the leading and supporting categories in the same year. Previous nominees were Fay Bainter in 1938, Teresa Wright in 1942, Barry Fitzgerald in 1944, Jessica Lange in 1982, Sigourney Weaver in 1988, Al Pacino in 1992, Holly Hunter in 1993, Emma Thompson also in 1993, Julianne Moore in 2002 and Jamie Foxx in 2004. No performer has won awards in both acting categories in the same year.


Cate Blanchett is the second performer nominated for playing a member of the opposite sex. Linda Hunt won her supporting actress award for playing a male character in The Year of Living Dangerously (1983).


Roger Deakins is the first cinematographer to receive two nominations in the same year since 1971, when Robert Surtees was nominated for his work on The Last Picture Show and Summer of ’42.


The four writing nominations for screenplays for which female writers receive sole credit is a record.


Brad Bird is only the third person to have more than one nomination in the Animated Feature Film category. Like Bird, John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki each have accumulated two nominations in the seven-year history of the category.


Marit Allen’s nomination for Costume Design is posthumous. She died November 26, 2007.


Best Picture Release Dates:
Atonement - December 7, 2007
Juno - December 5, 2007
Michael Clayton - October 5, 2007
No Country for Old Men - November 9, 2007
There Will Be Blood - December 26, 2007