n One of the year’s best-reviewed movies, “Into the Wild,” was nominated only for supporting actor (Hal Holbrook) and film editing. Many thought it a strong contender for picture, director (Sean Penn), adapted screenplay and in technical categories.

n Denzel Washington had been considered a leading candidate for best actor for his work as a Harlem drug lord in “American Gangster.” But the film was nominated only for supporting actress (Ruby Dee) and art direction.

n Ryan Gosling wasn’t nominated for his leading role in “Lars and the Real Girl,” playing a withdrawn young man in love with a life-size silicone sex doll. The picture’s one nomination was for Nancy Oliver’s original screenplay.

n Laura Linney, winning an actress nomination for her work as a neurotic woman dealing with her aged father’s increasing disorientation in “The Savages.”

n Casey Affleck, landing a supporting actor nom for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” an art-house Western that played only for a week in most cities.

n Tommy Lee Jones, picking up a best actor nod for his work as a retired career military man looking for answers to his soldier son’s disappearance in “In the Valley of Elah.” Most pundits thought he might land a supporting actor slot for “No Country.”

n Viggo Mortensen, a best actor nominee for “Eastern Promises,” in which he played a driver for a brutal Russian mob family in contemporary London.

n An original screenplay nomination for Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco for “Ratatouille.” It’s the second time (after “The Incredibles” in 2004) that Bird has been nominated for his screenplay for an animated film.

The documentary feature category seems heavily politicized this year. Nominated are “No End in Sight” (an examination of the Bush administration’s occupation of Iraq), “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” (famous actors read letters from soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan), “Taxi to the Dark Side” (the use of torture by the U.S. in fighting the war on terror) and “Sicko” (Michael Moore’s vivisection of the American health-care industry).

Only “War/Dance” (about Ugandan refugee children competing in a national music and dance festival) avoids American navel gazing.

Now we can spend the next month arguing about who should and will win and wondering whether there will even be an Oscar ceremony Feb. 24. That depends on what happens in the strike by the Writers Guild of America.