- Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men

- Paul Dano - There Will Be Blood

- Tommy Lee Jones - No Country for Old Men

- Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War

- Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Javier Bardem

Spanish thespian Javier Bardem's performance as psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men as been met with critical acclaim.

No Country For Old Men is receiving a string of rave reviews as one of the best Coen movies and a great performance by Bardem.

The story begins when Llewelyn Moss (Brolin) finds a pickup truck surrounded by dead me and a load of heroin and two million dollars in cash still in the back.

When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell (Jones) can contain.

As Moss tries to evade his pursuers in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives (Bardem) the film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines.

Bardem was the first Spanish actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for his Role in Before Night Falls in 2000.

He looks set to go one better this time with a Supporting Actor Golden Globe award under his belt Bardem is the runaway favourite to take the Oscar on 24th February.

Tommy Lee Jones

Joining Bardem is his No Country for Old Men co star Tommy Lee Jones.He may have been nominated for In the Valley of Elah at the Oscars but it is his role in No Country for Old Men that gained him a nomination with the Screen Actors Guild and the BAFTAs.

Since his role in 2002's Men in Black II Jones has done a string of more independent movies including The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which he directed.

In his role as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell he tells of how the times are changing, sheriff's never used to wear guns.

In pursute of killer Anton Chigurh, who in turn is following Llwelyn Moss, the dissillutioned sheriff plays his part in a cat and mouse game across the state.

Paul Dano

Paul Dano shot to fame as Dwayne, a Nietzsche-reading teenager who has taken a vow of silence, in last year's surprise hit Little Miss Sunshine.

Dano now stars alongside Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood, however his performance was over looked by the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards.

Set over a twenty year period the Will Be Blood follows Daniel Plainview (Day Lewis), who rises from a lowly silver miner to become a successful oil baron.

Following a tip from a visitor named Paul Sunday, whose family sits atop a veritable ocean of oil, Plainview travels to the town of New Boston, California, with his young son.

Sunday’s preacher brother Eli (both roles are played by the excellent Paul Dano) grudgingly accepts Plainview’s ambitions under the condition that he help fund the town church.

As Plainview’s plans come to fruition, a series of events begin to fracture the insular world he has constructed for himself, pitting Plainview against Sunday and forcing him to become even more vindictive and ruthless.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Seymour Hoffman goes into 2008 after a great 2007 that has cemented him as a great actor after his Oscar win for Capote in 2006.

With films Before the Devil Knows Your Dead and The Savages it is perhaps Charlie Wilson's War that he will be recognised most for.

Charlie Wilson's War is the true story of how a playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent and a beautiful Houston socialite joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operation in history.

Their efforts contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with consequences that reverberate throughout the world today.

As the renegade CIA officer Hoffman is supported by Oscar Winner Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts as well as Oscar nominee Amy Adams.

With three performances all worthy of a win it is his role in Charlie Wilson's War that has earnt him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Tom Wilkinson

Tom Wilkinson is the only British actor to be nominated in this category of Best Supporting Actor.

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house fixer at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York.

At the behest of the firm’s co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), Clayton, a former prosecutor from a family of cops, takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s dirtiest work.

Clayton cleans up clients’ messes, handling anything from hit-and-runs and damaging stories in the press to shoplifting wives and crooked politicians.

Though burned out and discontented in his job, Clayton is inextricably tied to Kenner, Bach & Ledeen; a divorce, gambling habit, and a failed business venture have left him with mounting debt.

At the agrichemical company U/North, the career of in-house counsel chief Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) rests on the multi-million dollar settlement of a class action suit that Clayton’s firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion.

When Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s top litigator, the brilliant Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has an apparent breakdown and subsequently tries to sabotage the entire U/North case, Michael Clayton is sent to tackle this unprecedented disaster and in doing so comes face to face with the reality of who he has become.

Wilkinson OBE has been one of Britain’s most successful actors making his mark in British movie Full Monty before going on to appear a string of Hollywood movies.

He received an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001 for his role in In The Bedroom. Since then he appeared in Batman Begins, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Last Kiss and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Tip to win BAFTA's Best Supporting Actor award - Javier Barden for No Country for Old Men

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw