Feature
No Home Runs in This Strike
Tallying the results of the Writers Guild Strike
When the 80th Annual Academy Awards arrive this Sunday, they will cap off one of the most tumultuous roller-coaster years in Hollywood history. A summer bloated with record-breaking, mega-budget films (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Transformers) gave way to a fall filled with exceptional, challenging cinema (No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood). But it was the Writers Guild of America strike--beginning on Nov. 5, 2007, and concluding on Feb. 12, 2008--that threw our entertainment picture into a tizzy.

Feature
Winners and Losers
Editorializing on the Oscars
Despite the long-looming threat of the Writer’s Guild strike, the 2008 Oscars are looking like a fine affair. Had WGA members not approved their most recent contract negotiations, the Academy Awards would have been reduced to a star-free, writer-starved clip show. (Nobody out there wants a repeat of the Golden Globes. Shudder.) But the strike is over, allowing nominees to attend guilt-free and returning host Jon Stewart to rely on a full staff of writers to pen his off-the-cuff quips.
Feature: Film Guide
80th Annual Academy Awards Ballot
Atonement (BAFTA, GG) Vegas Odds: 10/1
Juno (BFCA, SA) Vegas Odds: 15/1
Michael Clayton Vegas Odds: 8/1
No Country for Old Men (BSFC, BFCA, COFCA, CFCA, DFWFCA, FFCC, LVFCS, NBR, NYFCC, OFCS, PFCS, SDFCS, SA, SEFCA, TFCA, WAFCA) Vegas Odds: 2/5
There Will Be Blood (KCFCC, LAFCA, NSFC) Vegas Odds: 10/3
Alibi Pick: Atonement
Achievement in Directing
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Julian Schnabel (BSFC, GG) Vegas Odds: 8/1
Juno Jason Reitman Vegas Odds: 25/1
Michael Clayton Tony Gilroy Vegas Odds: 30/1