Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
After receiving 5 Academy Award nominations in the 80's, Glenn Close became, suddenly, an award snubed face in the film industry in spite of being a Great Actress... So what happened? Well, I don't know and to be completly honest I don't care, because it seems that she may have an Oscar comeback this year for Albert Nobbs. In the movie, Close portrays a woman, who dresses like a man in order to survive in Ireland of the 19th century. To be completly honest, Albert Nobbs seems one of those movies who are really risky: they can rule but they can also be a critical flop! So, Glenn Close seems to need a great critical reception in order to get an Oscar nomination this year, but she may need raves for her performance AND for the movie itself. Previous casting choices (Amanda Seyfried and Orlando Bloom) made me doubt about the quality of this project, but Rodrigo García already did a lot of great movies and made his actors deliver great performances (the ensemble of both Nine Lives and Mother and Child were great). So, let's give Glenn a chance this year and hope she delivers a great performance... and that she wins the Oscar. Everybody loves when a big star's back!
Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia
When she was cast in Lars von Trier's Melancholia, I thought that it was a strange choice, but then I realized that von Trier may be crazy, but he isn't insane and his crazy things have an interesting cinematic project as a result and it seems that it was what happened with Dunst: she got the best reviews of her career and the Cannes Film Festival prize of Best Actress. If you look at Interview with the Vampire, Little Women, The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette and All Good Things, you understand that Dunst is a great dramatic actress and it seems that von Trier uses her best acting qualities in Melancholia and the result: Oscar buzz after a sensation performance that seduced Cannes. Emily Watson was nominated for a Lars von Trier movie (1996's Breaking Waves), Björk almost got nominated for Dancer In the Dark (2000) and Charlotte Grainsbourg certainly didn't got an Oscar nomination because she wasn't a Hollywood-known-face (2009's Antichrist), so I think Dunst has really good chances in becoming the second actress to get an Academy Award nomination for a performance in a Lars Von Trier movie: she has everything on her side!
Felicity Jones for Like Crazy
She's such a charming girl and a charming actress, normal people may not know she's more than that pretty girl from Northanger Abbey TV movie, but the fact is that she seduced the Sundance Film Festival's jury (who gave her a prize for her distinguished acting) and audiences. Reviews rave her performance as an enchanting naïve British girl who falls madly in love for an American guy, who seems to be flawless and catching. But unlike it may seems, Jones isn't the only Sundance babe to be considered for the Oscar race in the Best Actress category: Elizabeth Olsen has something to say about Martha Marcy May Marlene and it seems that she may get the nod instead of Jones, but I believe that Like Crazy is a more Oscar-friendly movie than Martha Marcy May Marlene and, this way, Jones may get the nod in an easier way than Olsen (Jone's role seems the same kind of Michelle Williams' in Blue Valentine). The race won't be easy for Jones and she needs to cause sensation in the independent cinema awards and that the studio campaign her and the movie, but it is possible to her to be an Oscar nominated actress for Like Crazy.
Rooney Mara for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Her role is one of the most juicy roles of the year, by far, but there will be comparisons with the recent Noomi Rapace's amazing performance in the same role in the Swedish adaptations of the Millenium trilogy. In fact, Rapace was great (I would say (almost) perfect) and David Fincher didn't forget this when he was casting a lot of actresses: Mara was the chosen, getting the role that famous and respectful names wanted after a long period of casting auditions. I trust Fincher, so I believe Mara will be great, specially after seeing her in The Social Network: she only had 2 scenes I think, but she was completly magnetic, so powerful... now imagine her carrying a whole movie like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo... it sounds promising, specially when David Fincher knows how to direct a movie (the trailer looks SO great!). She looks like the part (more than Rapace, actually), she has a great presence in front of the camera, her eyes are extremely mysterious and she's attrative in a really strange way... I think she would be able to seduce the critics, the audiences and the AMPAS easily, but she must prove that she can do as good or better than Rapace!
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
She's Meryl Streep and she portrays the controversial Margaret Tatcher, the British prime-minister, so I think it is Oscar friendly enough! It seems that the AMPAS love when an actor/actress plays British royality and I know Tatcher wasn't royality, but her status as a political figure was/is huge and Streep may have a chance to win her third Oscar as many predictions say. She's always terrific even when she is in bad movies (she's Meryl Streep, she's always amazing) and she is the actress with most Oscar nominations (and the biggest Oscar loser at the same time), but she has fearless competition this year and the road to a Best Actress Oscar nod will be difficult: since the AMPAS may want to honour Glenn Close this year, they may not nominate Streep... but I don't think it will happen! In my opinion there's nothing more to say than she'll be amazing as always in The Iron Lady, she will got the Oscar nomination for Best Actress but she will loose to Glenn Close, because her performance in Albert Nobbs will be outstanding and she is overdue for her first win, while Streep already as two golden statues at home and she never got far way from Oscar nominations...
in consideration: Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene); Keira Knightley (A Dangerous Method); Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn or Take This Waltz);
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