Julie Christie, your Oscar statuette is calling

Laura Linney
The fact that you can never catch Laura Linney acting probably hasn’t helped her Oscar chances over the years, but she’s scored her third nomination for her trenchantly funny performance as Wendy Savage, a would-be playwright forced to transfer her gaze out of her own navel when she and her brother have to put their aging father into an assisted-living facility. It’s been a good year for Linney, who also turned in a hilarious supporting role as a wicked New York socialite in the disappointing “The Nanny Diaries.”

Fox Searchlight

But as with her other nominated work in “You Can Count on Me” and “Kinsey,” Linney’s performance in “The Savages” is the sort of subdued, smart acting that the Academy more often than not overlooks in favor of flashier stuff. This year, she’s got screen legend Julie Christie to contend with, which doesn’t bode well for her either. But Linney has always seemed happy to balance her work in critically acclaimed films with the occasional popcorn flick (“The Mothman Prophecies”), not to mention her frequent appearances on TV (“Frasier,” the various “Tales of the City” mini-series) and the stage, so this isn’t a do-or-die thing for her. She’s got plenty of red carpets in her future.

Ellen Page

Fox Searchlight

Just 20 years old — she turns 21 a few days before the Oscar ceremony — Canadian actress Ellen Page is one of the younger nominees in the history of this category. (Thus making her an exceedingly long shot to win.) But her portrayal of wiseacre pregnant teen Juno MacGuff in “Juno” has already become the stuff of legend. No one expected this little comedy to become a box office smash and major Academy Award contender, but it’s Page’s vulnerably deadpan performance that keeps the whole venture afloat, even when Diablo Cody’s nominated script occasionally veers too far into preciousness.

Since appearing on the cult Canadian sitcom “Trailer Park Boys” in 2001, Page has steadily built a reputation as a young actress to watch, particularly with her breakthrough performance as a teen girl who turns the tables on her would-be internet predator in the overwrought “Hard Candy,” which she followed with a small but attention-getting role in “X-Men 3.” Her appearances in the as-yet-unreleased Sundance films “An American Crime” and “Smart People” seem to indicate that her relatively young career is on an impressive trajectory.

Should have been nominated: Anamaria Marinca

IFC Films

In the way that the Academy’s snub of “Hoop Dreams” led to an overhaul of the best documentary nomination process, it seems likely that the absence of Romania’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” among the best foreign film nominees will bring about a change in how those films are selected for Oscar consideration. But while the film itself was egregiously overlooked this year, so was its star, Anamaria Marinca.

Portraying Otilia, a young college student trying to help a friend secure an illegal abortion during the Ceausescu years, Marinca is the audience’s eyes and ears in a brutal and repressive state where cigarettes and hot showers are a form of currency and every stranger is a potential police informer. Director Cristian Mungiu creates almost unbearable tension with long, static shots, but Marinca’s taciturn exterior in a series of increasingly hostile situations also contributes greatly to the overall sense of dread and danger. Whether she’s negotiating with dismissive hotel clerks, bargaining with the terrifying abortionist, or maintaining a pleasant façade in front of her boyfriend’s family, Marinca expresses volumes with just a facial gesture or a turn of the head. She’s a key player in an exciting new wave of film.

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