AP Photo/Ric FrancisRuben Roman, left, sets up a tent outside the Kodak Theatre in preparation for the 80th Annual Academy Awards in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. The show will be presented Sunday.
LOS ANGELES " You know it's a weird year at the Academy Awards when the Coen brothers are not only front-runners, but potential history-makers.
After 23 years as oddballs whose films occasionally click with broader audiences, on Sunday night Joel and Ethan Coen could become the first filmmakers to win four Oscars for one movie, with their crime thriller "No Country for Old Men."
They would be the first siblings to win the directing honor and only the second duo to share Hollywood's top filmmaking honor, following Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for 1961's "West Side Story."
And they would tie the record of four Oscars won in a single year held by one of Hollywood's most mainstream figures, Walt Disney, a quadruple winner for 1953 as producer of three short-subject winners and the documentary recipient.
The Coens share a best-picture nomination as producers of "No Country for Old Men," a zigzagging tale that captures the bleak beauty of the west Texas landscape and seamlessly blends vicious violence with absurd humor.
They also have nominations for directing, adapted screenplay and editing under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes.
For your complete Academy Awards coverage, pick up Thursday's Nevada Appeal or check back online.