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"No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" led with eight Academy Awards nominations each, among them best picture and acting honours for Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem - but whether any actors would show up was in doubt because of the writers strike.

Other nominees for best picture were "Atonement," "Juno," and "Michael Clayton."

The nominees for best actor are George Clooney for "Michael Clayton," Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood," Johny Depp for "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Feet Street," Vggo Morensen for "Eastern Promises" and Tommy Lee Jones for "In the Valley of Elah."

Best-actress nominees included Kate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The olden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie En Rose"; Lura Linny, "The Savages"; and Ellen Page, "Juno".

The nominees for best supporting actress were: Blanchett, "I'm not There"; Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"; Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"; Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"; and Tilda Swinton "Michel Clayon".

The nominees for best supporting actor are Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country or Old Men"; Philip Seymur Hoffman, "Carlie Wilson's War"; Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild" Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton".

The nominees for best director were: Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"; Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Tony Gilroy "Michael Clayton"; Jason Reitman, "Juno"; and Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

Blanchett, an Oscar winner in 2005 for "The Aviator," was nominated as best actress for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."

Blanchett's rivals in the best actress category include British veteran Julie Christie for her performance as an Alzheimer's sufferer in "Away from Her" and French star Marion Cotillard, dazzling as tragic chanteuse Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose."

Other best actress nominees were Laura Linney "The Savages" and Ellen Page for "Juno".

In the men's acting Oscar, British-born Daniel Day-Lewis is the clear favourite for his towering performance as a tyrannical oil prospector in "There Will be Blood."

Day-Lewis, an Oscar winner for "My Left Foot," faces competition from Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney for "Michael Clayton" and Johnny Dep in "Sweeney Todd."

The category was completed by two surprise entries -- Tommy Lee Jones for "In the Valley of Elah" and Viggo Mortensen for his performance as a Russian mobster in "Eastern Promises."

This year's best director award will see "No Country's" Coen brothers up against "There Will be Blood's" Paul Thomas Anderson, earning his fifth Oscar nomination.

Other contenders are Jason Reitman for "Juno", Tony Gilroy for "Michael Clayton" and Julian Schnabel for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

The best foreign film category saw a first-ever Oscar nomination for a movie from Kazkhstan with "Mongol".

Other nominees included Israel's "Beaufort", Austria's The Counterfeiters", "Katyn" from oland and "12" from Russia.

As has been the case in many recent Oscars, the best documentary category was dominated by films related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, scooping up three out of five nominations.

Charles Ferguson's searing indictment of post-invasion Iraq "No End in Sight" was nominated along with "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," Richard Robbins' film about veterans returning from war.

Alex Gibney's "Taxi to the Dark Side", about a taxi driver who was arrested and detained at a US military base in Afghanistan, was also nominated.

Controversial documentary film-maker Michael Moore, an Oscar-winner in 2003 for "Bowling for Columbine," also earned a nomination for "Sicko."

The Oscars are taking place this year amid deep uncertainty due to the Hollywood writer's strike, which has already forced the cancellation of the Golden Globes earlier this month.

Oscars organisers are adamant that this year's show will go ahead as scheduled, despite fears of the event being picketed by striking writers and possibly boycotted by actors sympathetic to the writers.

Awards show producer Gil Cates told the Los Angeles Times last week the show could go on with or without actors.

"There are enough clips in 80 years of Oscar history to make up a very entertaining show," Cates told the Times.

"We'd have a lot of people on stage. Much as this is shocking to people, there are a lot of people who don't act. I just hope that the actors are there. I pray that the actors are there. I'm planning that the actors are there."