2008 Award season scorecard

The 80th annual Academy Awards are on Sunday, February 24.

Now that the writers' strike is over, the show can go on for the Oscars. The Oscars mark the end of the movie awards season, the series of critical and popular awards to recognize the best in cinema for the past year of 2007.

The Academy Awards are the capping event of the year-end series of awards, and the guessing game about which of many worthy films will be the ultimate winners of Oscar gold is an entertainment in itself.

While the Oscars are not always indicators of great filmmaking, they do represent money for filmmakers and stars. Oscar winners also influence the kinds of films you will see in the coming years.

For the audience, films that win multiple awards, including a nomination for that final Oscar prize, are marked as worthwhile films. For some more serious film buffs, the other awards might be a better guide to picking a film but the Oscars do affect what will make it to the local theater

But predicting Oscars is notoriously difficult. Members of the Academy, all movie insiders, are not actually required to watch the films and are known to vote based on personal relationships. The films nominated in Oscar categories are often a better indication of worthwhile films for the past year, along with the winners of other awards.

So rather than try to pick the winners of Sunday's Oscar race, let us look at a scorecard of awards already won for the major Oscar nominees, starting with the five nominees for Best Picture. They are ranked below by number of Oscar nominations, then other wins and nominations.

Also, capsule reviews for the many Oscar nominees still in local theaters are in a separate article.

For film critics associations best picture awards, the big favorite was "No Country For Old Men" which won eleven awards, followed by "There Will Be Blood" with two wins and "Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" with one. The BAFTA, the British version of the Academy Awards, award and the Golden Globes, from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, award for drama Best Picture both went to "Atonement.'

For local critics, "No Country For Old Men" won the local St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Picture. The Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Picture went to "There Will Be Blood." "No Country For Old Men" won the Best Picture award for the Chicago Film Critics Association.

No Country For Old Men - The Coen brothers violent drama is the likely favorite to win this category, with 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem, Adapted Screenplay, Sound Editing, Sound, Editing and Cinematography.

It has another 73 wins and 29 nominations. Wins include BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem, eleven Best Picture awards from film critics associations, Critics Choice Award for Best Director and Best Picture, several other awards for Best Director and Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.

Trivia note: The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, are nominated for Adapted Screenplay, Directing, and Editing for "No Country For Old Men." Roger Deakins nominated for Best Cinematography for both this film and "Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

There Will Be Blood - Another violent drama, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, has 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sound Editing, Editing and Art Direction. It has another 33 wins and 31 nominations, with wins including Critics Choice Award for Best Actor and Score.

Atonement - Seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Costume Design and Art Direction. Another 11 wins and 52 nominations, including wins for BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards) and Golden Globe Best Picture, plus film critic awards for Cinematography, Costume and Editing, and Venice Film Festival Prize of the Forum for Cinema and Literature. But it might be too British and too literary for the Academy.

Michael Clayton - Seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for George Clooney, Best Supporting Actor for Tom Wilkinson, Best Supporting Actress for Tilda Swinton, Directing, Original Score and Original Screenplay. It has another 7 wins and 41 nominations, with wins including BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Tilda Swinton and several other acting wins. The story is good and it is taut drama but the nominations and wins are heavy on acting categories, so that seems to indicate it is unlikely to win.

Juno - Four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Original Screenplay, for the only comedy in the bunch and a genuine popular hit as well. For other awards, "Juno" has 30 wins and 19 nominations, with wins including Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Movie, Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, several awards for screenplay and for actress Ellen Page.

Ratatouille - Nominated for 5 Oscars, for Best Animated, Original Screenplay for Brad Bird and others, Original Score, Sound, Sound Editing, and another 32 wins and 16 nominations. The all-but-certain winner for the animated category, this comedy also won that category for the local St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Awards.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Four Oscar nominations for this inspiring fact-based French-language drama but sadly none for either Best Picture or even Best Foreign-Language Film.

The Oscar nominations are for, Best Director for Julian Schnabel, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. It had another 25 wins and 27 nominations, including wins for AFI Fest Audience Award for Best Feature, St. Louis International Film Festival Audience Choice Award, SLIFF's Film Critics Award and the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. It is an outstanding, moving, audience-pleasing film.

Ma Vie En Rose - Nominated for 3 Oscars, for Best Actress for Marion Cotillard, Costume Design and Make-up, plus another 15 wins and 33 nominations. Tour-de-force acting in this biopic of legendary French singer Edith Piaf makes the film a crowd-pleaser.

Sweeney Todd - Nominated for 3 Oscars with Best Actor for Johnny Depp, Art Direction and Costume Design, plus another 10 wins and 15 nominations. Tim Burton brings lots of blood to his adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's murderous musical.

Bourne Ultimatum - Nominated for 3 Oscars for Best Editing, Sound and Sound Editing. Another 7 wins and 17 nominations, wins include BAFTA for Best Sound and Editing and People's Choice Award for Action Movie

Away From Her - Nominated for 2 Oscars, Best Actress for Julie Christie and Best Adapted Screenplay, with another 28 wins and 25 nominations. It is a good, small indie movie, about a couple dealing with Alzheimer's.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Nominated for 2 Oscars, for Best Supporting Actor for Casey Affleck, Best Cinematography, and has another 9 wins and 13 nominations. It was one of the four films that won Best Picture awards from film critics associations. It is a visually beautiful period film, with strong acting and thought-provoking drama about fame and infamy, based on the book of the same name, one of the year's most underrated films.

Into the Wild - Nominated for 2 Oscars, for Best Supporting Actor for Hal Holbrook and for Editing, plus another 7 wins and 24 nominations. It is a fact-based drama about a supremely confident young man who went unprepared into the wilderness.

The Savages - Two Oscar nominations, for Best Actress for Laura Linney and Best Original Screenplay, with another 5 wins and 13 nominations. It is a darkly comic drama about grown children and family dynamics.