The 91st Academy Awards: Best Actress

Ever since the film premiered a year ago, Glenn Close has been the front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar, for The Wife. But she better not look back, somebody is gaining on her. This makes the Best Actress category, like Best Actor, suspenseful, at least at this point. Here are my predicted five:

Glenn Close, The Wife (Six nominations) It appears to be the year for Close, who is tied for the record of most nominations without a win for a woman (with Deborah Kerr). What makes me from thinking it's a slam dunk is The Wife wasn't exactly a boffo smash. But, of course, Jessica Lange won for Blue Sky.

Olivia Colman, The Favourite (no nominations) The categories for the three actresses in this film are kind of up in the air--will Colman go lead, with Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz as supporting. Colman will probably get a nod somewhere, as her turn as Queen Ann in this historical dramedy (think The Lion in Winter).

Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade (no nominations) This may be wishful thinking on my part, but the Academy has not held back on giving juvenile girls nominations in the leading category: there was Keisha Castle-Hughes and Quvenzhané Wallis. Fisher is so good in this movie as making a complete character, more than any juvenile performance I've seen in a while.

Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born (no nominations in this category) Ah, the threat to close. Gaga wowed many who thought she couldn't act, which may earn her some votes. Is this like Barbra Streisand winning for Funny Girl fifty years ago? (she tied with Katharine Hepburn). Maybe Close and Gaga will tie. She's odds-on favorite to win Best Song for any number of songs.

Rosamund Pike, A Private War (one nomination) Taking a flyer here, as Pike plays real-life war correspondent Marie Colvin. She even gets to wear an eye patch.

Other possibilities: Nicole Kidman, Destroyer, Toni Collette, Hereditary, Charlize Theron, Tully, Felicity Jones, On the Basis of Sex, Saoirsie Ronan, Mary Queen of Scots