Oscar nominations: Juno scoops four

No Country for Old Men topped the table with eight nominations when the Oscar shortlist was announced in Los Angeles today. The film, based on Cormac McCarthy's award-winning novel, was nominated for best picture, best director and best supporting actor for Javier Bardem. Equal with No Country was There Will Be Blood, including best film and - no surprise - best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

The British film Atonement received seven nominations including best picture and best supporting actress. But there was no nomination for either of its British stars, Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, who were nominated in the recent Baftas. Michael Clayton also scooped seven nominations, including best film and best actor for George Clooney.

But the movie that came from nowhere in recent weeks to receive four important nominations was the small independent film Juno, about a 16-year-old girl who gets pregnant and decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. The film, which has proved a surprise hit in America, will open in the UK on February 8.

As well as being nominated for best film, Jason Reitman is in line for best director, Diablo Cody's script is nominated for best original screenplay and 20-year-old Canadian, Ellen Page, is up for best actress. She will be competing for the Oscar with Julie Christie, nominated for Away From Her, Laura Linney in The Savages, Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose and Cate Blanchett playing the monarch in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Page (pictured right, with Cody), from Halifax, Nova Scotia, is being hailed by some as the new Jodie Foster - a young actress with extraordinary range and a great future. The New York Times calls her "frighteningly talented" while veteran US critic Roger Ebert wrote: "Has there been a better performance this year than Ellen Page's creation of Juno? I don't think so".

The Oscar winners will be announced on Sunday, February 24, though whether the full-scale Oscars ceremony will go ahead in view of the writer's strike is still unclear.

If the Academy Awards ceremony does take place, Page will be attending just three days after her 21st birthday. Meanwhile, she has just been named to follow up her star turn in Juno with Whip It!, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. It's about a roller derby queen, with a screenplay by derby star Shauna Cross, known on the circuit as Maggie Mayhem.