Complete coverage: The Academy Awards

"No Country for Old Men" wins big at Oscars

It was a bright night for dark movies.

Ladies wear red to the Academy Awards

The fashion drought is officially over (hey, it was even raining on the red carpet). With the Golden Globes gone frumpy due to the writers' strike and the Grammys being barely a warm up, well, thankfully, the 80th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre provided its fair share of fashion sizzle.

Complete list of Oscar award winners

Best Picture: "No Country for Old Men"

Our critics’ Oscar picks

Best Picture Nominees: "Atonement;" "Juno;" "Michael Clayton;" "No Country for Old Men;" "There Will Be Blood"

Will Ethan and Joel Coen get a best picture Oscar?

On a Sunday night this past January, as the filmmaking brothers Ethan and Joel Coen were picking up one of several New York Film Critics Circle Awards for "No Country for Old Men," they tossed to the crowd what must have seemed, to them, like a bouquet: "Until tonight," Ethan Coen said, "we thought all critics were -- ."

High anxiety

A war veteran living a quiet life in the middle of nowhere finds 2 million dollars among dozens of corpses. He runs off with the loot - and becomes prey for a pitiless, soulless killer.

'Michael Clayton' proves Oscar's love of ensembles

Jodie Foster, picking up her best actress Oscar for "The Silence of the Lambs," credited the actor whose murderous

OSCAR COUNTDOWN

Conti's thankless Oscar job

COMPOSER Bill Conti doesn't say it outright, but he's an adrenaline junkie. He's a trained high-performance driver, with a 1974 black Dino Ferrari, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, who, during his off-season, jets around the Gulf of Mexico in his cigarette boat.

A low-profile category aims for more than short shrift

If someone mentions "short film makers" do you look down?

The season of upsets

So here's the thing, naysayers, party-poopers, safe-bettors.

Ruby Dee of 'American Gangster' proves there are roles for older women

Who says there are no decent film roles for women over 40? Ruby Dee found one at 83.

Wilkinson and Affleck face-off in murky Oscar niche

There are at least two rules about Oscar's supporting-actor category: One, it's always more interesting than the other races, and, two, it's always a bit confusing - a grab bag of performances Academy voters don't know what else to do with.

New book provides Oscar-winning puzzles

What do "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Terms of Endearment" and "As Good as It Gets" all have in common? If you know jack about the Oscars, then you can figure out they're the three films for which Jack Nicholson won his Academy Awards.

'Michael Clayton' director Tony Gilroy's Oscar bid

He looks like a Brooks Brothers model, but keeps his feet planted squarely behind the camera. He was raised in upstate New York, yet writes like an acerbic British wordsmith. When he decided to direct, he got four of the most seasoned moviemakers in the business to produce. And everything he touches, at least in 2007, turns to gold.

A year for hot movie scripts

The writers' strike is over, but the irony remains: At the same time the standoff between producers and scriptwriters was stretching into weeks and months, theaters all over the country were screening examples of how writing for the movies was at one of its infrequent, but clearly identifiable peaks.

Catching up with Oscar

It's nine days 'til Oscar time. Are you up to speed on your nominated films? It's not too late to catch up. Newsday's Jan Stuart and Gene Seymour offer a last-minute roundup of what to see and where to see it.

Affleck brothers have the golden touch

As you contemplate where to place your Oscar-pool chips for best supporting actor and actress this month, mind the Affleck effect.

Academy Awards

Oscar fashion favors the bold

Once upon a time, Oscar fashion was little more than a footnote to the event.

8 Oscar nods each for 'Blood' and 'No Country'

"There Will Be Blood," and there will be Oscars. Paul Thomas Anderson's epic-sized battle between an oil baron and a preacher led the field of Best Picture nominees, announced in Los Angeles on Tuesday, along with the Coen Brothers violent suspense drama "No Country For Old Men," each picking up a total of eight Academy Award nominations.