BEST ACTRESS

Brenda Blethyn

“Secrets & Lies”

The best actress winner at Cannes and the Golden Globes, Blethyn, 50, also received the Los Angeles Film Critics and Boston Film Critics honors for her role as a woman reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption. She’s also a SAG nominee. “Lies” marks her first Oscar nomination.

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Diane Keaton

“Marvin’s Room”

The best actress winner for 1977’s “Annie Hall,” Keaton earns her third Oscar nomination for her role as a woman dying of leukemia. Keaton, 51, is also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. She was a best actress nominee for 1981’s “Reds.”

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Frances McDormand

“Fargo”

McDormand, 39, earns her first best actress nomination for her role as a pregnant police chief. The actress was a supporting nominee for 1988’s “Mississippi Burning.” Married to Oscar-nominated “Fargo” co-writer and director, Joel Coen, McDormand has received Golden Globe and SAG nominations.

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Kristin Scott Thomas

“The English Patient”

The British actress, who made her film debut in Prince’s “Under the Cherry Moon,” garners her first nomination playing a beautiful, aristocratic married woman who falls in love with a Hungarian count. Scott Thomas, 36, was nominated for a Golden Globe and is a SAG nominee.

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Emily Watson

“Breaking the Waves”

The 30-year-old British actress won the New York Film Critics Circle and National Film Critics awards and a Golden Globe nomination for her role as a naive, unstable young woman deeply devoted to her husband. “Waves” marks Watson’s first Oscar nomination.