The bloody crime thriller "No Country for Old Men" and oil boom drama "There Will Be Blood" led the nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards Tuesday morning, scoring eight nods each, including Best Picture.

Also up for Best Picture are "Atonement," "Juno" and "Michael Clayton."

"Atonement" and "Michael Clayton" trailed behind "No Country" and "Blood" with seven nominations each.

But while "Michael Clayton" scored three acting nominations and a Best Director nod for Tony Gilroy, "Atonement" failed to yield nominations for its lead actors Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, and director Joe Wright.

Earning the sole acting nomination for "Atonement" was 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan, who is up for Best Supporting Actress.

"No Country" co-directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen were nominated for Best Director, as was Paul Thomas Anderson for "There Will Be Blood," Jason Reitman for "Juno" and Gilroy.

Like previous years, the Best Director nominations were not in lockstep with the Best Picture nominees. Julian Schnabel was nominated for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," ousting Wright for "Atonement."

In the running for Best Actor are George Clooney for "Michael Clayton," Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood," Johnny Depp for "Sweeney Todd," and Viggo Mortensen for "Eastern Promises."

The surprise nominee in the category was Tommy Lee Jones for "In the Valley of Elah," since another one of Jones' performances, a supporting turn in "No Country For Old Men," has attracted much more attention, including a Screen Actors Guild nomination.

Cate Blanchett, who earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for "I'm Not There," also scored a nod for Best Actress for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Also vying for the trophy are Julie Christie for "Away From Her," Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose," and Ellen Page for "Juno." Laura Linney was the surprise nominee with a Best Actress nod for the comedy "The Savages."

Joining Ronan in the Best Supporting Actress race are Blanchett, Ruby Dee for "American Gangster," Amy Ryan for "Gone Baby Gone" and Tilda Swinton for "Michael Clayton."

"Michael Clayton" also earned a Best Supporting nod for Tom Wilkinson. Also up in the category are Casey Affleck for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Javier Bardem for "No Country For Old Men," Philip Seymour Hoffman for "Charlie Wilson's War" and Hal Holbrook for "Into the Wild."

Notably absent from most of the major nominations was Tim Burton's adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." While it scored notices for Depp, Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction, it was stonewalled in the race for Best Picture, Best Director for Burton and Best Actress for Helena Bonham Carter.

Other big names missing in the Oscar roll call were Angelina Jolie, who is up for a Screen Actors Guild Best Actress Award for "A Mighty Heart"; director Sean Penn, whose "Into the Wild" has earned nominations from the Producers, Directors and Screen Actors guilds; and newcomer Nikki Blonsky, thought to be a front-runner for "Hairspray."

Also coming up short Tuesday was Jerry Seinfeld's "Bee Movie," which missed out on a Best Animated Feature nomination. Instead, the nods went to "Persepolis," "Ratatouille" and "Surf's Up."

While Oscar is celebrating his 80th birthday this year, what remains to be seen is whether anybody will be on-hand to celebrate the milestone birthday with him come February. Oscar show producer Gil Cates has said that the show will go on despite the strike by the Writers Guild of America against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The strike, which began in November, has not only idled television programming, but has forced award shows like the Golden Globes to be downsized from their typical glitzy ceremonies into a glamour-less news conference where the winners were announced.

While the guild has granted waivers to fellow unions like the Screen Actors Guild to allow writers to work on SAG's awards show, the WGA has said that it will not do the same for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Oscars.

The 80th annual Academy Awards celebration is slated for Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. If the show goes on as planned, "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart will be back for his second Oscar-hosting gig.