KEY POINTS:
BEVERLY HILLS, California - The gritty dramas No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood scored eight Academy Award nominations each overnight, leading a sombre field in an Oscar season overshadowed by the Hollywood writers' strike.
The British period romance Atonement scored seven nominations before the
awards ceremony in late February, as did the legal thriller Michael Clayton.
All four films were nominated for best picture, along with the quirky teen comedy Juno.
No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood each got only one acting nomination.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem was cited for his supporting role as a cool-headed killer in No Country For Old Men and British actor Daniel Day-Lewis for his lead role as a misanthropic oilman in There Will Be Blood.
Both films were nominated for best director, along with Michael Clayton, Juno and the fact-based French-language story The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Juno and Butterfly each received four nominations in all.
The lion's share of films nominated in major categories deal in dark themes of human tragedy and struggle - a fact that Oscar producer Gilbert Cates said was not entirely coincidental.
"These are unsettled times, and the films reflect that," he said.
Day-Lewis will compete against George Clooney for Michael Clayton, Johnny Depp for the bloody musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tommy Lee Jones for the Iraq war-themed In the Valley of Elah and Viggo Mortensen for the mobster thriller Eastern Promises.
Day-Lewis, Clooney and Jones already have Oscars.
Australian actress Cate Blanchett, another Oscar laureate, received two nominations - for her title role as the British monarch 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.
Christie previously won an Oscar for 1965's Darling.
A notable absentee from the top categories was Sean Penn's Into the Wild, which got just two nominations - for Hal Holbrook's supporting role and for film editing.
The 80th annual Academy Awards will be handed out in Hollywood on February 24.
The screenwriters' strike against major studios, now in its 12th week, could force organisers 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 on Monday that its members would not cross the picket line to attend Hollywood's biggest night of the year.
Oscar organisers insist the show will go on one way or another as scheduled.
- REUTERS