1. Jessica Chastain - The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers
Jessica Chastain exploded onto the scene seemingly from nowhere just a few years ago. Appearing in a whopping seven films released in 2011, including the likes of The Tree of Life, The Help and Take Shelter, it became clear that hers was a name that is here to stay. After receiving a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in The Help, her profile with the Academy increased even more in 2012 with her turn as the determined hunter of Osama Bin Laden, Maya, in Katherine Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, earning her a Best Actress nomination. If she is to continue the trend and make it three years in a row with an Oscar nod, her chances will likely lie with the fate of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers. The film, which is being directed by first-time feature film director Ned Benson, is purportedly a character study scrutinizing the relationship between a couple living in New York City. Jessica Chastain stars as the wife while James McAvoy plays the husband. The film's ensemble also includes previous Oscar nominees such as Viola Davis and William Hurt, as well as French actress Isabelle Huppert and comedian Bill Hader. Sounds like a perfectly strong candidate for Oscar attention, right? Well here's the catch. The movie, in a bit of inspiration from Kurosawa's Rashomon, is actually two. There will be one film released that looks at events from the wife's perspective, the aforementioned The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers, and one movie that looks at things from the husbands point of view, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His. It's a creative idea that sounds intriguing to me, but for the geriatrics club in the Academy that had problems with the conversion to online voting last year, this may be simply too confusing and a potential death nail for the film's awards prospects (remember the audience debacle caused by the double-feature Grindhouse). The key then to whether this film will make an imprint on the 2014 awards season may very well depend on the film's marketing. The distributors of the films will have to make the concept behind the two films very clear and make sure people go see them both. There is always the factor too that people may not want to have to see both films, especially if they don't like the first one they see. If the first one they happen to see is the James McAvoy-driven film, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His, and they aren't impressed, then Jessica Chastain may not even get a good chance to show off her stuff for many an Academy member. Unfortunately, because of these complications, I have some trepidation over Ms. Chastain's chances, despite the hot streak she has opened her career with. That completes my early preview of the upcoming Best Actress race, but there were many viable contenders that I wasn't able to include, so if there is a name and performance you think should be ranked above this group of ten, let me know in the comments section down below.