Oscars BETTING: Best Supporting Actress

Blanchett on course to cement her status as top impersonator...

The ladies: Cate Blanchett (2.24), Amy Ryan (3.05), Ruby Dee (5.6), Tilda Swinton (18), Saoirse Ronan (20)

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Blanchett is setting herself up as the woman version of Alister McGowen, only a bit more Hollywood. Already she's won an Oscar for doing an impression of Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator, and this year she's looking good for another one for her 'Bob Dylan'. It's surely only a matter of time before she's cast in the lead for the Frank Spencer biopic...

Her and the other challengers line up like this:

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Blanchett - nominated here for her spot-on impression of Bob Dylan - scooped the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, so is understandably the favourite. That said, when she won the supporting actress Oscar in 2004 (for The Aviator), she had missed out on the Golden Globe a month or so previously. Winning here would make her only the third actress to win more than one supporting gong (alongside Shelly Winters and Dianne Wiest), and also being nominated for Best Actress (playing Elizabeth I) means that the Academy is a big fan.

Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Devotees of The Wire (best show ever) will recognise Amy Ryan as the sweet dockside cop who almost tames McNulty. Here, she plays the drug addicted mother of a missing child (in a film yet to be released in the UK, due to the ongoing Madeline McCann mystery), and she has already bagged nineteen awards for the role - including the Broadcast Film Critics Association award, which has picked four of the last six Best Supporting Actress Oscar winners.

Ruby Dee - American Gangster
At 83, Ruby would be the oldest winning actress since 80-year-old Jessica Tandy won Best Actress for Driving Miss Daisy (1989), but when it comes to awarding the elderly, the Academy has no problem shattering their dying dreams - old woman Gloria Stuart was 87 when she was nominated for her role in Titanic, and yet she lost to the far prettier Kim Basinger (for LA Confidential). Her chances will be bolstered, however, by her win at the Screen Actors Guild awards, that also honoured big favourites Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem. An strong outside bet.

Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Hailing from sunny Ireland, it could be a bridge too far for the young actress, with 76 per cent of supporting actress awards going to American actresses since the Oscars began. That said, the last time an Irish actress won was 1989, when Brenda Fricker scooped it for My Left Foot. The Best Actor that year was Daniel Day-Lewis - also the favourite for this year. Spooky!

Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton
Only twice in the last thirty years have the Best Supporting Actor and Actress been in the same film (Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest, Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986; Jason Robards and Vanessa Redgrave, Julia, 1977), so it's not looking great for Tilda Swinton or Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton – although, do note that the double win favours films with a person’s name in the title (a sign!). Her measured performance fades alongside the likes of Blanchett and Dee. No real chance.