Round two of our Pick the Oscar Winners contest goes to the women. And what a powerful lot they are.
The Best Actress category is the most interesting — and the closest — of all the top categories at the 85th Annual Academy Awards, with no clear favorite.
The remarkable women range from the youngest to ever be nominated in this category — 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis who portrays Hushpuppy, an imaginative young girl living with her father in an isolated Louisiana swampland in Beasts of the Southern Wild — to the oldest — 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva, who plays Anne, an elderly woman being cared for by her husband following two debilitating strokes in Amour.
The Best Actress category is the most interesting — and the closest — of all the top categories at the 85th Annual Academy Awards, with no clear favorite.
Rounding out the list are top performances by Naomi Watts, who portrays a wife and mother struggling to survive in the aftermath of a terrifying tsunami in The Impossible, Jessica Chastain as a CIA agent who plays a pivotal role in a decade-long search for Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty, and Jennifer Lawrence, a troubled young widow who begins a complex relationship with a man recently released from a psychiatric facility in Silver Linings Playbook.
Many prognosticators believe the race is a toss-up between Chastain and Lawrence. Who do you think will win?
Vote now in the CulturePoll on the CultureMap home page and pick your favorite. Each correct entry will be entered into a drawing, where the randomly selected Grand Prize champ will receive the year-long pass, along with 10 runners-up, who will each receive a pass to a movie at the cinema complex at Bayou Place in downtown Houston.
In the just completed voting for Best Actor, CultureMap voters overwhelmingly chose Daniel Day-Lewis for his uncanny portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln.
There will be chances to vote in other major categories as well:
Best Supporting Actor — Feb. 11 - 14
Best Supporting Actress — Feb. 14 - 18
Best Picture — Feb. 18 - 21
Best Director — Feb. 21 - 24
Contest winners will be announced Feb. 25, the day after the Oscar telecast on ABC/Channel 13.
9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis sparkles in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
