Big, flashy and popular are out. Small, serious and arty are in. At least that’s the message delivered by academy voters with this year’s Oscar nominations.

The films that dominated this year’s slate didn’t provide a lot of happy endings. Most were serious and grim, filled with death and violence.

About the only upbeat tale among the best picture nominees was the teen pregnancy comedy “Juno,” which is against such heavyweight fare as “Atonement,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Michael Clayton” and “There Will Be Blood.”

Leading with eight nominations each were “There Will Be Blood” and “No Country for Old Men,” both dark, disturbing tales thick with violence and misanthropy.

“Blood” was nominated for picture, actor (Day-Lewis), director (Paul Thomas Anderson), adapted screenplay (Anderson), cinematography, art direction, sound editing and film editing.

This brooding study of an early 20th-century oilman has won raves for the performance of leading man Daniel Day-Lewis but has alienated many moviegoers with its unconventional narrative. (I’ve been getting e-mails from displeased ticket buyers taking me to task for my four-star review of the movie.)

“No Country,” a harrowing tale of violence along the Texas/Mexican border, will compete in the picture, supporting actor (Javier Bardem, playing an unforgettable killer), director (Joel and Ethan Coen), adapted screenplay (the Coens), cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and film editing categories.

Getting seven nominations was “Atonement,” a tragic British love story unfolding before and during World War II. It was cited for picture, supporting actress (young Saoirse Ronan), adapted screenplay (Christopher Hampton), art direction, cinematography, costumes and original score.

Not nominated were leading lady Keira Knightley and director Joe Wright, both of whom were considered early contenders.

“Michael Clayton,” a legal drama examining the mental and moral toll on attorneys defending corporate thuggery, picked up six nominations, all in major categories: picture, actor (George Clooney), supporting actor (Tom Wilkinson), supporting actress (Tilda Swinton), original screenplay (Tony Gilroy) and direction (Gilroy).

“Juno” was nominated for picture, actress (Ellen Page), original screenplay (Diablo Cody) and director (Jason Reitman).

It’s hard to pick a clear leader in this year’s Oscar race, though simply by virtue of its lightheartedness and popularity with audiences, “Juno” would seem to have some momentum.

Actress Cate Blanchett was nominated both for actress (”Elizabeth: The Golden Age”) and supporting actress (”I’m Not There,” in which she played a male singer patterned after the mid-’60s Bob Dylan).

This year’s Oscar nominations have plenty of other we-didn’t-see-it-coming surprises and upsets:

n The failure of the dark musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” to get nominations for best picture, director Tim Burton or leading lady Helena Bonham Carter. Johnny Depp was nominated in the actor category, and the gory tunefest got technical noms for costumes and art direction.

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.