Best Actress

Emily Blunt	The Young Victoria	CC, GG	0,0
Sandra Bullock	The Blind Side	*CC, *GG, *SAG	0,0
Sandra Bullock	The Proposal	GG	0,0
Marion Cotillard	Nine	CC [supporting], GG	1,1
Helen Mirren	The Last Station	GG, SAG	3,1
Yolande Moreau	Seraphine	*LAFC, *NSFC	0,0
Carey Mulligan	An Education	*NBR, CC, GG, SAG	0,0
Julia Roberts	Duplicity	GG	3,1
Saoirse Ronan	The Lovely Bones	CC	1,0
Gabourey Sidibe	Precious	CC, GG, SAG	0,0
Meryl Streep	It’s Complicated	GG	15,2
Meryl Streep	Julie and Julia	*NYFC, *CC, *GG, SAG	15,2

The most unlikely rivals are competing for the title of all-out Queen of 2009 – one of our greatest actresses and one of our dullest – Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock. In a time when studios are still leery of financing films starring women, these actresses had two box office hits apiece last year. They each picked up a Golden Globe nomination for one of them, each WON a Golden Globe for the other, and they even tied with each other at the Critics’ Choice Awards. Even though both their Oscar bid films got mediocre reviews, these two women own this category on the strength of the year they had, and everyone else is just along for the ride.

Two new-comers will make the top five: 24-year-old Carey Mulligan got sterling notices as a young woman navigating her future, and 26-year-old Gabourey Sidibe astonished as a young woman with seemingly no future. Finally, 2006 winner Helen Mirren returns in a lusty, tragicomic role as Leo Tolstoy’s wife, so that pretty much ends the race.

If anyone surprises, I bet it will be Emily Blunt as The Young Victoria, because Oscar is quite the sucker for British queens (Judi Dench was nominated for this same role in Mrs. Brown.) Disappointment for The Lovely Bones and Nine has sidelined Saoirse Ronan and Marion Cotillard (the latter teetering between the lead and supporting categories), and no one has even heard of surprise critics’ winner Yolande Moreau.