Oscar Nominees: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

My predictions: 4/5, picking Dowd over Weaver
My ballot: Come back next week!
The nominees: Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables), Helen Hunt (The Sessions), Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)

This category frustrates me because, with the except of Hathaway’s musical moment and Hunt’s strong turn, whose inclusion only makes costar John Hawkes’ snub sting all the more, this does not represent the best work of any of the other actresses in this category. That’s most true of Weaver, who was terrific in a motherly role in “Animal Kingdom” two years ago that earned her a nomination. This role doesn’t even compare, and just adds to the absurdly high nomination total for the decent “Silver Linings Playbook” – eight – which includes every acting category and also directing and editing, two places it shouldn’t have shown up. Weaver just doesn’t have the material or the role to stack up to the rest of her cast. Adams does her best but it’s not nearly as good as, say, “Junebug” or “The Fighter,” and I recognize that I wasn’t impressed with Field’s performance but others were. I’m sad that Ann Dowd couldn’t crack the list for “Compliance,” and I’m not in as much of a rush to see “The Paperboy” anymore now that Globe and SAG nominee Nicole Kidman didn’t make the cut. SAG nominee Maggie Smith may have a blast at that awards ceremony and the Globes, but “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” didn’t earn a single nomination today.

My current bet to win: It’s going to be Hathaway.