1.
Laura Linney for Hyde Park On Hudson
Born: February 5, 1964 - New York City, New York, USA
Previous Oscar acting recognition: 2001 - Best Leading Actress for You Can Count on Me (nom); 2005 - Best Supporting Actress for Kinsey (nom); 2008 - Best Leading Actress for Savages (nom)
Oscar snubed performance(s): 2003 - Mystic River; 2005 - The Squid and the Whale
She may not be a movie star in a global scale or an Hollywood diva, but Laura Linney is just a lovely presence on screen and a very capable actress. While I believe her part in the Oscar friendly-looking Hyde Park On Hudson may be promoted as a supporting one, I'm sure the role is meaty enough in order to give her another Academy Award nod no matter for which category she'll be promoted. I've my doubts about Linney's Oscar-winning chances (for some reason I've found hard trying to look at her as a potential Oscar winner), but I'm sure she will score an easy nomination. Playing President Rooselvelt's mistress makes me believe she will have a big couple of scenes with Bill Murray (such a great actor) and everybody knows how talent + talent always benefits both actors. Plus, the movie is generating Best Picture buzz, which only increases Linney's Oscar hopes and the AMPAS just seem to love her (do you remember the 2007 race when the Academy gave an unexpected Best Leading Actress nod to Linney for Savages, snubing huge stars like Angelina Jolie for A Mighty Heart and Keira Knightley for Atonement?) and she's simply not fake...
2.
Marion Cotillard for Rust & Bone
Born: September 30, 1975 - Paris, France
Previous Oscar acting recognition: 2008 - Best Leading Actress for La vie en rose (win)
Oscar snubed performance(s): 2009 - Nine
One of the most charming actresses working in our cinema industry, Marion Cotillard is one of the actresses with the best post-Oscar win careers, by far. After winning for playing Édith Piaf, Cotillard almost got another nominated for her acting in Rob Marshall's musical Nine, got a breath-taking part in Christopher Nolan's Best Picture nominated and box-office sensation Inception, starred in Woody Allen's Best Picture nominated Midnight In Paris and, this year, she delivers a tour-de-force performance as a damaged woman in Jacques Audiard's French-speaking Rust & Bone and a second Oscar nod may happen soon! She receveid Oscary raves for her work in Rust & Bone during Cannes Film Festival, being praised for delivering such a "nuanced and real" performance, being able to show "complex feelings on her face, as if from the inside, without grandstanding her emotions" in such a subtle acting. At my point of view, Cotillard is one of the greatest actresses of today and since she combines talent, success, beauty and charm, I can see the AMPAS nominating her for the Best Leading Actress category... you know, Oscar has a serious love affair with the French language!
3.
Maggie Smith for Quartet
Born: December 28, 1934 - Ilford, Essex, England, UK
Previous Oscar acting recognition: 1966 - Best Supporting Actress for Othello (nom); 1970 - Best Leading Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (win); 1973 - Best Leading Actress for Travels with My Aunt (nom); 1979 - Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (win); 1987 - Best Supporting Actress for A Room With a View (nom); 2002 - Best Supporting Actress for Gosford Park (nom)
Oscar snubed performance(s): 1987 - The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne; 1993 - The Secret Garden
Playing a diva is always fun for both the actress and the audience, but when we have the always great and two times Oscar winning Maggie Smith as a opera primadonna... well, things just get pretty serious! After the Harry Potter franchise and the success of Downtown Abbey TV series, I believe Dame Maggie Smith is in good conditions to get another Oscar nomination. Dustin Hoffman directs Quartet, a movie about four retired opera singers, Smith leads, but what if the movie is too ensemble focused? Well, in normal conditions, it would be difficult to a "normal" leading actress to shine bright, but people want to see Maggie getting some Oscar glory due to her successful career and the last years of hard and regular work. She's a scene-stealing presence in Quartet's movie trailer and it will be hard to stop this fantastic "acting machine"... no matter who she's sharing the screen with, she will get all the attentions a primadonna receives!
4.
Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Born: ?? - ?? - 2003
Previous Oscar acting recognition: none
Oscar snubed performance(s): none
A mesmerizing acting debut that made critics going crazy, Quvenzhané Wallis leads Sundance hit Beasts of the Southern Wild and she's one of the estabilished players of the next awards season. Only 8 years old (but almost 9!), Wallis is in serious danger to become the youngest actress ever nominated for an Academy Award and, if she wins, the youngest performer ever to win an Oscar. Critics raved Wallis work by calling her a "tiny force of nature" or "a flat-out amazement", generating a lot of Oscar buzz. I can't forget how things seemed solid for Elizabeth Olsen for Martha Marcy May Marlene around August 2011, but, unlike MMMM, Beasts is a serious contender in the Best Picture and Director fields and it is an enchanting piece of cinema, a feeling-hope story with touching and extremely sympathetic leading performers... For some reason, I want Wallis to be nominated. For some reason, I think she will get the nod, because, you know... the AMPAS loves to break big records sometimes!
5.
Carey Mulligan for The Great Gatsby
Born: May 28, 1985 - Westminster, London, England, UK
Previous Oscar acting recognition: 2010 - Best Leading Actress for An Education (nom)
Oscar snubed performance(s): 2011 - Shame
Since An Education, everybody knows this girl had a lot to offer and the big proof was last year's Shame (dynamite!) for which she got snubed from major awards last season. This year, she stars Baz Luhrman's adaptation of the classic The Great Gatsby and she's simply magnetic in the movie trailer: cinematic gravity. Daisy Buchanan is a complex and showy character that never got the treatment it/she deserved by other actresses (in my opinion), but, for some reason, I believe Mulligan will nail this one! Miss "English Charm" spent months (if I'm not wrong) preparing for the role, so she will not be less than "great", I believe. Plus, the movie itself looks ambitious, DiCaprio will call some attentions, the supporting cast seems solid and Luhrman is able to do magic behind the camera: The Great Gatsby will be a major Oscar contender in a lot of categories and it will be an acting showcase for Mulligan, for sure, putting her on the run for her second Oscar nomination - she deserves it!
6. Keira Knigtley for Anna Karenina
Born: March 26, 1985 - Teddington, Middlesex, England, USA
Previous Oscar acting recognition: 2006 - Best Leading Actress for Pride & Prejudice (nom)
Oscar snubed performance (s): 2007 - Atonement; 2011 - A Dangerous Method
Anna Karenina's movie trailer is beautiful and the released clip sounded amazing, but Keira Knightley acting promises to divide critics like just she did with A Dangerous Method (I liked the ranged she showed, to be honest). I can't judge an entire performance based on a 6 minute clip, but she didn't convinced me... But we are talking about the wonderful Knightley & Wright team which brought Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, so excluding Keira from Best Leading Actress Oscar consideration is just immature this soon and without any review.
7. Jennifer Lawrence for The Hunger Games
Born: August 15, 1990 - Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Previous Oscar acting recognition: 2011 - Best Leading Actress for Winter's Bone (nom)
Oscar snubed performances: none
The AMPAS doesn't tend to nominate performances from a franchise, specially the leading actors/actress (exclude Johnny Depp for Pirates of Caribbean 1), but Jennifer Lawrence is just too good to be completely ignored and I believe some awards associations will bite her work in The Hunger Games. The first installement of the series was surprisingly good and if the first Oscar nod Lawrence received for Winter's Bone marked her breakthrough performance, a second one for The Hunger Games would mark the born of a true movie star.
8. Kristin Wiig for Imogene
Born: August 22, 1973 - Canandaigua, New York, USA
Previous Oscar acting recognition: none
Oscar snubed performance(s): none
When Wiig emerged as a real star in last year's Bridesmaids, she got the critical praise and the audience's love and, this year, she may be have the AMPAS members has her target. She stars Imogene, a small production with American Spendlor directing duo behind the camera and she plays a frustrated playwright... Sounds interesting and sounds like a meaty role for Wiig, but Oscar voters aren't used to go for comedies in the Best Leading Actress category: will she be good enough in order to make them break their personal rules?
9. Scarlett Johansson for Under the Skin
Born: November 22, 1984 - New York City, New York, USA
Previous Oscar acting recognition: none
Oscar snubed performance(s): 2003 - Lost In Translation; 2003 - Girl With Pearl Earring; 2005 - Match Point
Being on Broadway (and winning a Tony Award) and starring The Avengers put Scarlett's career back on track again, but will Under the Skin give the first Oscar nod to the young star? Jonathan Glazer is a gifted director and he directed Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, for which he got an Oscar nomination, and Nicole Kidman in Birth, in an extremely buzzy (but snubed) performance, so I believe he will be able to do wonders with Miss Johansson in a salacious and juicy role. The movie was described as very "abstract", it has no release date yet - doubts about its quality and Oscar potential remain in my head...
10. Mary Elizabeth Winstead for Smashed
Born: November 28, 1984 - Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA
Previous Oscar acting recognition: none
Oscar snubed performance(s): none
"The Girl From Scott Pilgrim Vs the World" aka Mary Elizabeth Winstead was the this year's Sundance babe: the star of Smashed, for which she received huge critical acclaim. The reviews are great and some folks mention her name in the prediction foruns, but there's no serious Oscar buzz around her performance right now but it may not be a bad thing at all. Some Sundance movies have plenty of buzz until Summer, but when Fall comes it simply dies. Maybe the producers are trying to save the best for last, but no matter what happens, Miss Winstead received very Oscar-friendly reviews in Sundance!
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