13 Unexpected Actors Who Might Win Oscars In 2020

3. Awkwafina (Best Actress - The Farewell)

The Role: Billi, a Chinese-American woman who returns to China after her grandmother is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

The sophomore feature from Lulu Wang (Posthumous) has been universally acclaimed since its Sundance premiere, with the lion's share of the praise going to both writer-director Wang and an expectation-defying Awkwafina.

Given that the rapper-actress has tended towards broad Hollywood vehicles such as Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians, it's enormously surprising to see her fronting a more down-to-Earth dramatic comedy such as this.

And more to the point, Awkwafina is said to be fantastic in it, eschewing the grating caricatures she's known for in favour of a more honest and grounded portrayal of what it means to be Asian-American in 2019.

It's rare that a Sundance hit has the momentum to carry all the way to the Academy Awards over a year later, but with the backing of Oscar-friendly distributor A24, Awkwafina's got a fighting chance in the least.