SAG Winner Predictions: Best Actress in a Leading Role

The competition: Cate Blanchett’s disturbed socialite (Blue Jasmine), Sandra Bullock’s panicked astronaut (Gravity), Judi Dench’s kindhearted mother (Philomena), Emma Thompson’s prickly author (Saving Mr. Banks), and Meryl Streep’s pill-popping matriarch (August: Osage County).

For your information: While all of these women are Oscar winners, Thompson has not won a SAG award (these awards weren’t give out when she won her Oscar). She does have one previous individual film bid. In the lead and supporting film categories, this is the ninth nomination for Streep, the eighth for Dench, the seventh for Blanchett, and the second for Bullock. All have won exactly once (Streep won for TV another time too). Only Streep is also nominated as part of her ensemble.

Who should win: Dench or Bullock, though none of these would be my choices.

Who will win: It’s hard to know who the frontrunner will be, but I’d guess Blanchett.