Two robust US period dramas, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men, lead the Oscar field with eight nominations each. Both are up for the most coveted award, best picture, and one of them will take it.

The Coens have won the top prize at the major guild awards (directors, producers, screenwriters, actors), and even though their thriller got only one acting nomination (for Javier Bardem), they seem on course to win.

Jason Reitman's warm and witty has had its honour by getting into the final five. The chances of Atonement winning are undermined by Joe Wright's failure to secure a best director nomination. The inclusion of Tony Gilroy's well-acted but overrated moral drama Michael Clayton is puzzling, and the prospect of it winning is unthinkable.

THE ODDS

1/3 No Country for Old Men

9/2 There Will Be Blood

8/1 Atonement

18/1 Juno

40/1 Michael Clayton