No Country for Old Men remains one of my favorite films of all time - I watch it monthly because I like having it on in the background - I am also always amazed by the mastery of the filmmaking. You can visit the last days before The Oscars at the Wayback Machine. The one thing I don't cover in this podcast, because I'd forgotten - is that the No Country year was the lowest rated telecast in 20 years. Why that matters is simply that it was a good example of the right film winning but not necessarily the film the public would have been interested in seeing win. As the years would progress, this disconnect would just get bigger and longer. I wrote a defense of AMPAS after The Oscars:
And here is a bit about Diablo Cody:
Episode Nine - No Country for Old Men - 2007 - If the Road You Have Traveled Has Brought You to This, of What Use was the Road?