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Like expectant parents, the film community predicted the Canadian-directed, Canadian-starring teen-pregnancy comedy Juno would deliver a clutch of Oscar nominations.

And sure enough it did yesterday with four, including a best-actress nod for Ellen Page, as well as a best-director nomination for Montreal-born Jason Reitman. It joined Canadian Oscar shoo-in, Sarah Polley's Away from Her, which received two nods from the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The category of best animated short was also strong for Canadian filmmakers. Two Canadian entries were nominated: the highly experimental National Film Board of Canada short Madame Tutli-Putli and the BravoFACT-funded I Met the Walrus.

Yesterday's nomination announcement, however, did little to shed light on whether most of the nominees will even show up for the awards show on Feb. 24, as the U.S. screenwriters' strike rages on, or whether the broadcast, if it airs, will be reduced to little more than a series of film clips. Officials with the Writers Guild held informal talks yesterday with Hollywood studios that could lead to the resumption of negotiations. As it stood yesterday, preparations for the telecast were proceeding, and the film world was treating the nominations with the usual excitement.

"It's as if I had swallowed some fireworks or something like this," said Marion Cotillard, nominated for best actress for La Vie en Rose, as quoted on Variety's website. Marjane Satrapi, co-director of Persepolis, nominated for best animated feature, said: "I woke up this morning and had time to eat all my nails."

Reached by phone, Polley sounded more down to earth. "It all really was surprising," she said, describing the critical success for Away from Her leading to the nominations. Polley is up for best adapted screenplay, from Alice Munro's short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain.

The film's star, Julie Christie, is nominated for best lead actress for her portrayal of a woman with Alzheimer's. Christie recently won a Golden Globe for her role.

"So much about a film's success is about timing and things that are totally out of your control. ... These things are so random, it's best just to treat it as a big, shiny toy that you really enjoy and not take it too seriously. Because who knows if it will happen again," Polley said.

Ahead of the nomination announcement, Juno had been widely predicted to be the darling of the Oscars, even though it didn't wind up with the most nods. That distinction went to the violent Coen brothers feature No Country for Old Men and the Daniel Day-Lewis-starring film There Will Be Blood, with eight nominations apiece.

But with its uplifting story among a legion of darker films, Juno scored nominations in most of the banner categories from best motion picture and best direction, to best screenplay for Diablo Cody, and best leading actress.

It probably didn't hurt that Juno managed the difficult feat of being both critically acclaimed and a low-budget box-office success. Its current total take is approaching $90-million (U.S.) since early December, compared to No Country for Old Men, which is approaching $50-million.

In the category of animated shorts, Madame Tutli-Putli follows a young 1920s flapper on a nightmarish train trip that's given a vaguely surrealistic, European touch by filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. The short uses puppets filmed with stop-motion animation and subtly superimposes actors' eyes on their faces.

When asked about the film's popularity since it made its debut at Cannes last year, Szczerbowski said: "If you can explain to me why, I'd be really curious. ... Ours is a kind of 20th-century nightmare put into a hydraulic press. When we were making it, we just hoped that there was a tiny fringe audience that may need a fix of this sort every now and then."

I Met the Walrus is the first professional film by Toronto filmmaker Josh Raskin. It adds animation to a rambling interview that a Toronto teenager conducted with John Lennon in 1969 during the height of Lennon's bed-in days. Raskin said it was the first of his films to be seen by "anyone outside my friends, family and pets."

With a report from Associated Press

***Oscar facts

4

The number of films nominated for best picture that had their North American debut at the

Toronto International Film Festival.

$85.3-million (U.S.)

The North American box office so far for Juno, an amount nearly double what its nearest competitor in the best-film category has earned. ($48.6-million for No Country for Old Men)

1

The number of movies up for a major award that cracked the top 10 in box-office draw for 2007. (Ratatouille, nominated for best animated feature.)

SNUBBED

Notably absent from the list:

Keira Knightley and James McAvoy were both overlooked for their roles in Atonement, as was the film's director, Joe Wright.

Angelina Jolie, considered a shoo-in for her role as Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart, also didn't make the cut.

ON THE CEREMONY

"I won the Golden Globe and it feels strange to be on the sofa watching the TV while they're saying your name. But at the same time you have to wear a tuxedo and walk the carpet, so everything in life is good and bad. Who likes the carpet? Supporting-actor nominee

Javier Bardem

"If there's a strike, I will not go, but I have a feeling they'll solve it. ... I'm sure my mom would like to see me on TV and so forth, but if there's a strike, I'm not crossing the line."

Viggo Mortensen, nominated for best actor for David

Cronenberg's Eastern Promises

AP, CP, Staff

***

And the nominees are...

The complete list of Academy Award nominations announced yesterday: Best Picture Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.

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

Actor George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood; Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah; Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises.

Actress Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age; Julie Christie, Away from Her; Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose; Laura Linney, The Savages; Ellen Page, Juno.

Supporting Actor Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men; Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War; Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton.

Supporting Actress Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There; Ruby Dee, American Gangster; Saoirse Ronan, Atonement; Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone; Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton.

Foreign Film Beaufort, Israel; The Counterfeiters, Austria; Katyn, Poland; Mongol, Kazakhstan; 12, Russia.

Adapted Screenplay

Christopher Hampton, Atonement; Sarah Polley, Away from Her; Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men; Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood.

Original Screenplay

Diablo Cody, Juno; Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl; Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton; Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, Ratatouille; Tamara Jenkins, The Savages.

Animated Feature Film

Persepolis; Ratatouille; Surf's Up.

Art Direction American Gangster, Atonement, The Golden Compass, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, There Will Be Blood.

Cinematography The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.

Sound Mixing The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma, Transformers.

Sound Editing The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, There Will Be Blood, Transformers.

Original Score Atonement, Dario Marianelli; The Kite Runner, Alberto Iglesias; Michael Clayton, James Newton Howard; Ratatouille, Michael Giacchino; 3:10 to Yuma, Marco Beltrami.

Original Song Falling Slowly from Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; Happy Working Song from Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; Raise It Up from August Rush, nominees to be determined; So Close from Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; That's How You Know from Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.

Costume Across the Universe, Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, La Vie en Rose, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Documentary Feature

No End in Sight, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Sicko, Taxi to the Dark Side, War/Dance.

Documentary (SHORT SUBJECT) Freeheld, La Corona (The Crown), Salim Baba, Sari's Mother.

Film Editing The Bourne Ultimatum, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.

Makeup La Vie en Rose, Norbit, Pirates of the Caribbean:

At World's End.

Animated Short Film

I Met the Walrus, Madame Tutli-Putli, Même les pigéons vont au paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven), My Love (Moya Lyubov), Peter and the Wolf.

Live-Action Short Film

At Night, Il Supplente (The Substitute), Le Mozart des pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets), Tanghi Argentini, The Tonto Woman.

Visual Effects The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers.

Associated Press