Nominations ~ Bookish and Interwebby

USC Scripter Nominations are announced. In otherwords: Best Screenplays based on books.

• Atonement ~Hampton does McEwan
  
• Into the Wild ~Penn wanders with Krakauer
  
• No Country For Old Men ~The Coen Bros worship at the pen of Cormac McCarthy
  
• There Will Be Blood ~ P.T.A from Upton Sinclair
• Zodiac ~Vanderbilt dissects Graysmith
  

This is not quite the same thing as "Best Adapted Screenplay" at the Oscars but people view it as such. The Oscar category has a wider definition: your screenplay can be based on a short story (Away From Her, Lust Caution), older films (Rescue Dawn), stage plays (Bug, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd) --basically any previously published material. That's a solid list the USC has drawn up there though I personally think Into the Wild's spot could have gone to Jesse James or Diving Bell or A Mighty Heart

The Online Film Critics Society have also spoken. Their Best Picture list, quite sturdy, comes down to these (nearly identical) five...

• Atonement ~directed by Joe Wright
  
• Juno ~ directed by Jason Reitman
  
• No Country For Old Men ~ directed by the Coen Bros
  
• There Will Be Blood ~ directed by Paul Genius Anderson
  
• Zodiac ~ directed by David Fincher
  

Antagony & Ecstacy has the complete roster of their nominees. The Lovely Laura Linney (FINALLY!) is in for The Savages and Jennifer Garner also gets her first real awards notice for her somewhat sneaky and well handled turn as a baby hungry would be mom in Juno.

Points to the OFCS for their "breakthrough performer" list, too: Blonsky -Hairspray, Hansard -Once, Riley -Control, Van Houten -Black Book, Wei -Lust, Caution; not a single one of those performances isn't worth applauding and putting on your "to see" list right now. Seriously, load up that Netflix queue. The big disappointment for me in their nominated lineups: looks like I'll still be the only one to deny the lie of Casey Affleck as a "supporting" actor. [seriously people... if he's that good --just boot somebody out of Best Actor and make room for him -ed.]