MOVIE stars and celebrities are preparing to descend on a rainswept Hollywood for the 80th Academy Awards, with film-making brothers Joel and Ethan Coen aiming to make Oscars history.
Dark clouds and rain are hovering over Los Angeles, threatening to put a dampener on the movie industry`s biggest party of the year, which gets under way at 5pm (1200 AEDT) at the Kodak Theatre.
Streets around the venue were cordoned off as authorities draped a security blanket over the neighbourhood where about 3400 Oscars guests will arrive on a red carpet that has been shielded by a waterproof canopy.
The awards themselves are expected to be carved up between several violent, bleak movies, with the eight-times nominated No Country for Old Men heading the field and its directors, the Coen brothers, eyeing a place in history.
The Coens could set a new record if they sweep all four categories they have been personally nominated in - best picture as producers, director, adapted screenplay and editing.
It would be the first time ever that anyone has won four Academy Awards for the same film in one year, although Walt Disney scooped four Oscars for different projects in 1953.
On paper, No Country for Old Men`s biggest rival is the eight-time nominated oil industry epic There Will Be Blood, which is joined in the best picture category by legal thriller Michael Clayton, historical drama Atonement and comedy Juno.
But after scoring a sweep of the movie industry`s professional awards --seen as key Oscar indicators - No Country for Old Men looks unstoppable.
Bookmakers have made the film a 1-3 favourite while the Coens are backed at 1-4 to scoop the best director prize.
Pundits say the expected success of No Country for Old Men indicates the willingness of the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science`s 5829 voters to reward quality film-making regardless of the level of violence.
"The old days of The Sound of Music and Oliver winning best picture are gone, at least for the time being," Tom O`Neil, an awards season pundit with the Los Angeles Times` theenvelope.com, said.
Beyond the contests for best picture and best director, clear front-runners have emerged in most of the acting categories.
Cate Blanchett, who is also nominated in the best actress category, had been the early favourite following her gender-bending performance as music legend Bob Dylan in I`m Not There.
A heavily pregnant Blanchett picked up an eve-of-Oscars boost yesterday when she won the best supporting actress prize at the Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica.
"It`s kind of cruel to make a pregnant lady waddle this far," Blanchett joked as she collected her prize.
The Spirit Awards, seen as a laidback alternative to the Oscars aimed at honouring independent films, saw three top honours go to Academy Awards best picture nominee Juno.
Daniel Day-Lewis is regarded as a shoo-in to scoop the second best actor statuette of his career for playing a tyrannical oil baron in There Will Be Blood, ahead of fellow nominees who include George Clooney for Michael Clayton and Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah.
However, O`Neil cautioned that the widely popular Clooney may yet pull off a shock.
"In the history of the Oscars there is usually one absolutely jaw-dropping upset," O`Neil said.
"Michael Clayton is a very popular film and the reason for that is Clooney. That could carry him."
The best actress award is expected to be a straight fight between British veteran Julie Christie, who plays a woman grappling with Alzheimer`s in Away from Her, and France`s Marion Cotillard, nominated for her startling portrayal of tragic chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose.
In the supporting categories, Javier Bardem is poised to become the first ever Spaniard to win an acting Oscar for his performance in No Country for Old Men, where he plays a psychopathic hit-man whose specialty is executing victims with a slaughterhouse cattle-gun.
This year`s Oscars are taking place after months of uncertainty following the Hollywood screenwriters strike that wreaked havoc with the entertainment industry`s awards season.
