The Academy’s award for Best Actress in a Leading Role is almost exclusively given out for dramatic rolls; last year being the exception with Jennifer Lawrence winning for ‘Silver Linings Playbook’.

This year boasts heavy competition for the award of best actress. Amongst the nominees are some of the most decorated actresses in the history of the Academy. Meryl Streep holds the most [ever] with eighteen nominations and 3 awards—the greatest number of any actress (Katharine Hepburn has the most wins of all time (4), however, she received fewer nominations). Judi Dench is second, with 7 nominations and 1 win, Cate Blanchett has 6 nominations and 1 win, Amy Adams has received 5 nominations (this is her first non-supporting actress nod), and Sandra Bullock has one win for The Blind Side.

And The Nominees Are:

Amy Adams, American Hustle

Sandra Bullock, Gravity

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Judi Dench, Philomena 

Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

While ‘August: Osage County’ was in no way my favourite film of the past year, Meryl Streep’s performance was a knock out. The complexity of emotion with which she portrays Violet Weston is phenomenal. At once a villain and a victim, this southern matriarch steals the screen. If the academy were to hand out second place, I have no doubt it would go to Blanchett for her performance as Jasmine, a neurotic ex-socialite, struggling to reassemble her life amidst a nervous breakdown.

Who will win: Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Who should win: Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Who was left out: Some feel Emma Thompson was overlooked for her performance in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’, however, I feel Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos are both far more deserving of recognition for their performances in ‘Blue Is the Warmest Colour’ (a film conspicuously absent from the Academy’s list, likely because of it’s risqué subject-matter).

– Astrid Handling