Summit Entertainment, Columbia Pictures Industries, Darius Khondji/Sony Pictures Classics, Jess Pinkham/Fox Searchlight, The Weinstein CompanyThe 85th annual Academy Awards are mere weeks away. You've surely had enough time now to consider all of the nominations, so it's time to start making some predictions.
First up: Which of the five actresses will win the Best Actress Oscar? Your choices are:
Jennifer Lawrence: The frontrunner for the Oscar is a two-time nominee at only 22 and Golden Globe and SAG Award winner for this part. In Silver Linings Playbook, she plays a widow named Tiffany who forms an unlikely bond with a troubled man.
Jessica Chastain: Another early favorite for the award, the Zero Dark Thirty star plays Maya, the hard-nosed CIA agent at the center of the decade-long search for Osama Bin Laden. This is Chastain's second consecutive Oscar nomination.
Naomi Watts: In The Impossible, she take on the real-life role of María Belón (renamed Maria Bennett for the film), who, after 2004's devastating tsunami swept Thailand, finds herself separated from most of her family and fighting for her life.
Emmanuelle Riva: Amour hauntingly depicts the lives of an elderly couple after the wife, Anne, suffers a stroke. As her condition worsens, the movie delves into the horrors that come hand-in-hand with love. At 85 years old, she is the oldest acting nominee ever.
Quvenzhané Wallis: In the whimsical Beasts of the Southern Wild, she plays Hushpuppy, a little girl who must wrestle with big problems, including her hothead father and the impending "end of the world." At 9 years old, Wallis is the youngest ever Best Actress nominee.