2015 Oscars: Gold Rush Gang Predictions September 2014 – The Imitation Game Cracks the Code

Best Actress is another category where the top 4 are quite solid, far away from that #5 spot. Reese Witherspoon is enjoying a lead here for Fox Searchlight’s Wild, which was met to mostly good reviews at Telluride but mostly for Witherspoon’s performance. It will be interesting to see if some of the mixed reviews for the film overall affect her in the coming months. The one person that can overtake is her is #2 Rosamund Pike from 20th Century Fox‘s Gone Girl. Pike has made some big gains here, far overtaking Amy Adams in Big Eyes from The Weinstein Company. Adams was a former #1 before a middling preview screening and the film not finding a place in any of the major fall festivals so far.

With The Weinstein Company clearly putting its bets on The Imitation Game one wonders what will be left for Amy Adams and Big Eyes. Perennial nominee Meryl Streep stays strong in Into the Woods from Disney but only in terms of the massive gap between #4 and #5. It seems that she is going to become a ‘lack of a better choice’ nominee as she has been so many times before.

Next up is Jessica Chastain in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (another Weinstein film), but with that film being split into three versions (Him, Her and Them) will voters have trouble deciding where to put her? Will Weinstein? This could make room for Shailene Woodley in The Fault in Our Stars from 20th Century Fox to get her first nomination after heading two major blockbusters this summer.

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