Does Annette Bening have chance to beat the odds and go home with the Oscar statuette? Or is she going to lose again to a younger actress, Natalie Portman, mostly associated with indie films.

Jessica Lange won the 1994 Best Actress Oscar for the marital melodrama “Blue Sky, “which became Tony Richardson’s last feature movie. This was Lange’s second Oscar, having won the Supporting Actress Award for “Tootsie” in 1982.

Oscar Nominations: 4

Best Actress: Lynn Redgrave

Supporting Actor: James Mason

Cinematography (black/white): Ken Higgins

Song: Georgy Girl, music by Tom Springfield, lyrics by Jim Dale

Oscar Nominations: 5

Foreign Language Film

Actor: Gerard Depardieu

Art Direction-Set Decoration

Costume design: Franca Sqarciapino

Makeup: Michele Burke and Jean-Pierre Eychenne

In 1993, the Best Actress winner was Holly Hunter for The Piano, which was made by Jane Campion, one of the few women to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar.

Holly Hunter had been nominated once before, for “Broadcast News,” in 1987, and then again for two supporting roles.