Heath Ledger
Slumdog Millionaire, Heath Ledger and Penelope Cruz are surefire bets for Oscars glory on Sunday (22Feb09) - a panel of Academy Awards experts has unanimously decided they're the favourites to win gold.
The six Oscar watchers are split on the Best Actor and Actress categories, with four picking Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler and two choosing Sean Penn for Milk, and five picking Kate Winslet for The Reader and one giving Meryl Streep the lead for Doubt.
Slumdog Millionaire has been the toast of Hollywood as the independent film scooped all the major awards at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and Baftas and with ten nominations it's expected to pick up Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle.
The late Heath Ledger has also been honoured for his role as the Joker in blockbuster The Dark Knight collected the Best Supporting Actor gong from all the big pre-Oscar award ceremonies.
Penelope Cruz picked up the Best Supporting Actress Bafta last weekend for her role in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona and with Winslet's performance being nominated in the Best Actress category she seems certain to take home the Oscar.
Kate WInslet's performance in The Reader was placed in the Best Actress category for the Oscars, despite being a supporting actress performance at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild, and while awards have been coming thick and fast for the British actress Meryl Streep perhaps is her competition after she won the Screen Actors Guild award for her performance.
The Best Actor category however is a two horse race as Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke have shared the awards over recent weeks with Rourke winning the Bafta and Golden Globe and Penn taking home the Screen Actors Guild Award.
Tagged in Slumdog Millionaire