PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal)
Julie Christie in “Away from Her” (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in “The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in “Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
Analysis
Two of the five Best Actress nominees are first-timers in the Oscar race: French Marion Cotillard and Canadian Ellen Page.
No French actress has ever won the acting Oscar for a French film: Simone Signoret won the 1959 Actress kudo for the English-speaking, “Room at the Top,” and Juliette Binoche the 1996 Supporting Actress for “The English Patient.”
Julie Christie last received an Oscar in 1965, for “Darling,” but she has been nominated after that for “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” in 1973, and for “Afterglow,” in 1997.
This is the second Best Actress nomination for Cate Blanchett, who was first in the run in 1998 for “Elizabeth,” in which she played the same character as a young woman. Blanchett is also nominated this year for the Supporting Actress for her turn as Bob Dylan in “I'm Not There.”
Laura Linney has been nominated twice before, in 2000 in the lead category for “You Can Count on Me,” and in 2003 in the supporting league in “Kinsey,” in which she played the sex researcher's wife.
My Prediction: Julie Christie
