- Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age

- Julie Christie - Away From Her

- Marion Cotillard - La Vie En Rose

- Keira Knightley - Atonement

- Ellen Page - Juno

Marion Cotillard

Marion Cotillard is the third international actress to be nominated in this category for her role as singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. The film, directed by Olivier Dahan follows the life of Edith, the Little Sparrow, between 1916-1963 from her time as a street singer, to concert halls, to fame. The music biopics always do well when the awards season comes around and this year appears to be no different. This movie is a sweeping melodrama with Marion Cotillard giving her heart, body and soul to the role as the troubled singer whose body is ravaged by alcohol and drugs. Marion Cotillard has already received Best Actress Award from the Boston Society Film Critics and the LA Film Critics association for her role.

Cotillard also finds herself in the Best Actress category at this year's Oscars and may be Christie's main rival for the award as the pair have shared the critics awards so far this award season.

Julie Christie

Julie Christie, the British movie legend, is the first of our two British actresses to be nominated in this category.

In Away From Her Christie stars as Fiona who, along with her husband, must face the fact that her forgetfulness is Alzheimers.

She is moved into a nursing home and for the first time is almost five decades the couple under-go a separation.

But her husband is devastated to discover that during the ‘no visitor’ for the first thirty day policy Fiona has forgotten him and turned her attentions to another man.

The actress has done well on the critics' awards circuit picking up sever Best Actress awards including San Francisco Film Critics Circle, Washington D.C Area Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review.

She also won the Golden Globe for her performance and more recently the Screen Actors Guild award and is now the favourite to scoop the Best Actress Oscar nest month.

Keira Knightley

For her performance in Atonement Keira Knightley receives her first BAFTA nomination after being surprisingly overlooked for role as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, despite being Oscar nominated.

Unfortunately this year the young actress has missed out on her second Academy Award nomination.

Atonement saw Keira Knightley finally stake a claim as a serious grown up actress shacking off her young girl roles.

She silences her critics with a very controlled performance as the emotionally repressed Cecilia.

Cecilia’s life pivots around her lover Robbie’s false accusation of rape. After he is sent to prison and then to fight in the war.

Cecilia leaves her family behind to become a nurse in Blitz London.

Knightley is the second British actress to be nominated in this category as Atonement leads the Golden Globe nominations.

We will next see Keira in the Edge of Love with Sienna Miller and The Dutchess with Ralph Fiennes.

Ellen Page

Ellen Page is the real success story of 2007 with her role in Juno. Despite being cast in Hard Candy it is her current role that has captured the attention of film audiences.

Juno is a clever sixteen year old girl who, after her first sexual experience, discovers that she is pregnant.

What follows is a string of adult decisions for the young over the welfare of her and the baby.

She decides that she will have the child adopted and finds childless couple Mark and Vanessa who are longing for a child.

Page is terrific in the role as this film surprisingly handles the delicate subject of teenage pregnancy and adoption in a very grown up manner.

Page is perhaps a surprise nomination for the Best Actress Oscar at just twenty years old but only has an outside chance of winning the award despite Juno doing better at the box office than any other of the Best Picture Oscar nominated movies.

Cate Blanchett

This autumn she reprised the role of Elizabeth the first that shot her to stardom in 1998.

Elizabeth I’s rule is being challenged by King Philip II of Spain who wants to restore Catholicism to England.

She is prepared to defend her empire and go to war. But she is struggling to balance her royal duties with her unexpected feelings for Sir Walter Raleigh.

Unfortunately the film did poorly at the American box office fairing slightly better here in the UK. However despite it's poor showing in cinemas Cate Blanchett has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role

As at many other award ceremonies already Blanchett finds herself nominate din both Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress categories. However it is the Best Supporting Actress category were she stands more chance of winning.

Tip to win BAFTA's Best Actress - Julie Christie in Away From Her.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw