85th Academy Awards

Best Supporting Actress

Best Director

Best Sup. Actor

Amy Adams

The Master

It seems that the crucial figure in the Cause is actually Peggy, whose sense of persecution is balanced with hubris, a schoolmarm chirp, and cunning, in a way that only Adams could bring off.
– Wesley Morris

Sally Field

Lincoln

Fields’s performance is a beautiful thing, one that uses the actress’s own neurotic edge — her need for us to really, really like her — to breathe life into a smart, volatile, sorrowful woman.
– Ty Burr

Anne Hathaway

Les Misérables

Helen Hunt

The Sessions

Jacki Weaver

Silver Linings Playbook

Ty Burr says ...

Singing “I Dreamed a Dream” in quivering macro close-up while dying of Generic Tragic Wasting Disease: That’s acting. Not to me, but it is to a lot of people, and I’m guessing it’ll be to Oscar voters. And good for Hathaway, who’s deserving, if not for this. “The Paperboy” may be a modern camp classic, but Kidman does strange and wonderful things in it. Adams delivers the sneakiest, most subtle performance in “Master” — no way she’ll win.

Will win
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Should win
Amy Adams, The Master

Shouldn't be here
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Was robbed
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Janice Page says ...

Front-runner Anne Hathaway is a Hollywood darling but she may be a victim of viral video parodies and her own hyper-prattling Golden Globes speech. Field could swoop in (please, God, let her talk off the cuff) or Adams, who quietly commanded every inch of “The Master.” Never heard of Ann Dowd? She’s from Holyoke, and she made a throwaway movie something to see.

Will win
Sally Field, Lincoln
Should win
Amy Adams, The Master

Shouldn't be here
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Was robbed
Ann Dowd, Compliance