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OSCARS

2022 Oscars Awards Best Actress nominees: who are the candidates?

Five actresses will be looking to lift the famous statuette at the 94th Academy Awards. But who are they and which movies are they starring in?

Update:
Five actresses will be looking to lift the famous statuette in the 94th Academy Awards. But who are they and which movies are they starring in?

The world of cinema will be looking at Los Angeles on Sunday night, when the 2022 Oscars are held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

This year’s Best Actress contest leans into an Oscar staple, the biopic, and into uncertainty, as there's not a big favorite to lift the Oscar.

Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Olivia Colman, Nicole Kidman, and Kristen Stewart are the actresses that will be looking for glory this weekend. Let's take a look at their roles.

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Jessica Chastain plays a decadent Tammy Faye Bakker, the wealthy Christian televangelist whose husband brought down their empire when he went to federal prison for fraud.

Although The Eyes of Tammy Faye hasn't received great reviews from critics, it's her transformative role that makes her a real candidate for the win. A big, prosthetics-laden performance in a biopic is the sort of thing that awards voters tend to go for. And after two previous nominations, this one could be the successful one.

Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter

Colman is not only looking to lift the statuette, she wants to make history. Can she win Best Actress twice in three years? If Frances McDormand did so in four years, why can't Colman repeat her success?

In The Lost Daughter, Colman features in a psychological drama film based on the novel of the same name by Elena Ferrante. She is a middle-aged college professor whose beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past.

The movie already took the screenplay award this past week at the Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the show-closing trophy for best film. That could highlight even more Colman's performance en route to another Oscar.

Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers

The Supporting Actress winner for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) is again in the American spotlight for her work in Parallel Mothers, where she plays a woman whose baby is switched at birth with another mother.

Cruz, who rejoins charismatic director Pedro Almodóvar, won the prestigious Volpi Cup for Best Actress, but can she repeat that success in Los Angeles?

It will all come down to whether she can make the difference among the more familiar movies, as Parallel Mothers isn't based on a biopic. Imagine if she and husband Javier Bardem manage to both win the Oscar?

Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos

All the actresses have good prospects of winning the Oscar, and Nicole Kidman is no different. Kidman is liking her chances of winning the award after a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and a Golden Globe win.

The Australian star, who won lead actress for The Hours (2002), plays the legendary comedian and actress Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's biopic Being The Ricardos.

Like most of the candidates, Kidman had to transform herself to play a real person, but what could play in her favor is that her character was probably even more difficult to perform than the rest due to the complexity of Ball's character.

Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Almost half of the lead-acting prizes in the last 30 years have gone to biopic performances and Kristen Stewart is probably well aware of that.

Her Twilight success had a big impact on her career in the past, but her role in Spencer, where she plays a psychologically wounded Princess Diana during the British royal family’s 1991 Christmas celebrations, has become her career-defining work.

Stewart, a first-time nominee, has fierce competition ahead of her, as she is up against three former winners, but that, together with the fact she went way outside her comfort zone for the character, could give her a real chance of winning the award.

Follow the latest updates on the 2022 Oscars in "stories"