IT’S A CROWDED FIELD

THE Oscars’ acting races are packed with real drama.

Having two major roles in the lead race, Denzel Washington and Philip Seymour Hoffman must not only survive battles against themselves (academy rules permit actors only one nomination per category), but also with Johnny Depp wielding a razor as crazed Sweeney Todd.

Meanwhile, can Angelina Jolie’s passionate support pump new awards hope into “A Mighty Heart”?

BEST ACTOR

Favorites

George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”

John Cusack, “Grace Is Gone”

Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”

Johnny Depp, “Sweeney Todd”

Tom Hanks, “Charlie Wilson’s War”

Emile Hirsch, “Into the Wild”

Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” / “The Savages”

Tommy Lee Jones, “In the Valley of Elah”

James McAvoy, “Atonement”

Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises”

Jack Nicholson, “The Bucket List”

Denzel Washington, “American Gangster” / “The Great Debaters”

Spotlight: Many Oscar gurus believe Daniel Day-Lewis is the front-runner because he gives the most dynamic performance of the year as a Texas prospector whose inner furies erupt like a gusher when he strikes oil in “There Will Be Blood.” But Day-Lewis was also the favorite five years ago for portraying fiendish Bill the Butcher in “Gangs of New York.” Again, he might be punished for the sins of his character.

Possible

Mathieu Amalric, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Josh Brolin, “No Country for Old Men”

Russell Crowe, “3:10 to Yuma”

Benicio Del Toro, “Things We Lost in the Fire”

Frank Langella, “Starting Out in the Evening”

Brad Pitt, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”

Sam Riley, “Control”

Ryan Gosling, “Lars and the Real Girl”

Spotlight: Just because a few ornery film critics went gunning for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” doesn’t mean Brad Pitt’s Oscar hopes are dead. Golden Globe voters will probably give him a shot, considering how much they love superstars. After winning the Globe in 1995, Pitt was nominated by Oscar voters in the supporting race for “12 Monkeys” and now he’s packing a secret weapon: He portrays a real-life character, just like the last three winners in this category (Forest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jamie Foxx) and 19 others before them.

Long shots

Casey Affleck, “Gone Baby Gone”

Christian Bale, “Rescue Dawn” / “3:10 to Yuma”

Steve Carell, “Dan in Real Life”

Don Cheadle, “Talk to Me”

Richard Gere, “The Hoax”

Morgan Freeman, “The Bucket List”

Spotlight: Oscar voters owe Richard Gere big time. They’ve never nominated him throughout his 30-year career, not even for the role that won him a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild bid in Oscar’s best picture winner “Chicago.” Could they possibly have something against sleazy showbiz lawyers? Or Gere himself? Miramax plans a DVD push of spring release “The Hoax” to remind award voters of what the L.A. Times called Gere’s “richest, most mature performance” as con man Clifford Irving, who nearly succeeded in peddling a fake Howard Hughes autobiography.

BEST ACTRESS

Favorites

Amy Adams, “Enchanted”

Helena Bonham Carter, “Sweeney Todd”

Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”

Julie Christie, “Away From Her”

Angelina Jolie, “A Mighty Heart”

Nicole Kidman, “Margot at the Wedding”

Keira Knightley, “Atonement”

Laura Linney, “The Savages”

Ellen Page, “Juno”

Spotlight: In addition to the strength of her performance as a doomed lover in “Atonement,” Keira Knightley may have an edge in the best actress race. Some Oscar pundits believe her movie is the best picture front-runner. If true, voters often like to give the winning film a corresponding acting award, sometimes in supporting (Juliette Binoche, “The English Patient”; Jennifer Connelly, “A Beautiful Mind”), but preferably in lead (Hilary Swank, “Million Dollar Baby”; Gwyneth Paltrow, “Shakespeare in Love”). However, Knightley has limited screen time in “Atonement.” She’s campaigning in the lead race but does she really belong in supporting? Could she fall between the two? That’s what happened to Jack Nicholson in last year’s best picture, “The Departed.”

Possible

Halle Berry, “Things We Lost in the Fire”

Cate Blanchett, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”

Keri Russell, “Waitress”

Spotlight: If the Oscars are really all about hugs -- and they are (who’s in the club, who’s out; who’s hot, who’s not) -- academy members may be eager to embrace Halle Berry again, considering the painful lesson she recently got in Hollywood humility. Within three years, she went from winning an Oscar as best actress (“Monster’s Ball”) to a Razzie as the worst (“Catwoman”). Shrewdly, she showed up to accept the latter, gushing, “Thank you so much! Never in my life did I think I’d be up here!” Brandishing her Oscar statuette before the crowd, she shouted, “No I don’t have to give this back! It’s got my name on it!”

Long shots

Jodie Foster, “The Brave One”

Ashley Judd, “Bug”

Charlize Theron, “In the Valley of Elah”

Naomi Watts, “Eastern Promises”

Spotlight: Could Charlize Theron be one of those automatic Oscar nominees? After winning best actress for “Monster,” she received a new bid for her next big, serious film, “North Country.” Now her latest, “In the Valley of Elah,” has major Oscar pedigree: It’s the first big, serious film written and directed by Paul Haggis after his “Crash” won best picture. Considering she got largely good reviews (Rolling Stone called Theron “dynamite” in “Elah”), don’t be surprised if her name pops up on the ballot again, even though her movie disappointed at the box office.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Favorites

Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”

Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”

Sacha Baron Cohen, “Sweeney Todd”

Philip Bosco, “The Savages”

Paul Dano, “There Will Be Blood”

Albert Finney, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”

Ben Foster, “3:10 to Yuma”

Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Charlie Wilson’s War”

Ethan Hawke, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”

Hal Holbrook, “Into the Wild”

Alan Rickman, “Sweeney Todd”

John Travolta, “Hairspray”

Tom Wilkinson, “Michael Clayton”

Max von Sydow, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Spotlight: This category skews older than its female counterpart: 24 winners have been older than 55, compared with only eight supporting-actress champs. Thus, it’s widely regarded as a Veteran’s Achievement Award that often goes to overlooked icons (Alan Arkin, James Coburn, Martin Landau). At 82, Hal Holbrook’s been skunked by Oscar voters -- he’s never been nominated -- despite having won several Emmys and a Tony. Now he’s hard to ignore as the kindly sage who tries to talk sense into a reckless young vagabond in “Into the Wild.”

Possible

Vincent Cassel, “Eastern Promises”

Russell Crowe, “American Gangster”

Tom Cruise, “Lions for Lambs”

Robert Downey Jr., “Zodiac”

Tommy Lee Jones, “No Country for Old Men”

Armin Mueller-Stahl, “Eastern Promises”

Spotlight: As a rising young star in 1992, Robert Downey Jr. nabbed a best-actor nomination for portraying the Little Tramp in “Chaplin.” Now a new Oscar bid could signal that his comeback from Drugsville is complete and he shines anew. In “Zodiac,” the L.A. Times called his performance “electric as the glib, debauched” reporter investigating a serial killer. But did voters see “Zodiac” in theaters last spring? If not, Paramount made the point of shipping the DVD to them early this fall -- it was among the first dozen received by academy members.

Long shots

Homayon Ershadi, “The Kite Runner”

Peter Fonda, “3:10 to Yuma”

Michael Sheen, “Music Within”

Timothy Spall, “Sweeney Todd”

Forest Whitaker, “The Great Debaters”

Spotlight: Homayon Ershadi could benefit from the occasional desire of Oscar voters to prove they’re not Hollywoodcentric by hailing obscure foreign actors like past winner Haing S. Ngor (Cambodian star of “The Killing Fields”) and two-time nominee Djimon Hounsou (African actor in “In America” and “Blood Diamond”). Ershadi is an Iranian who first gained critical notice in “A Taste of Cherry” in 1997. In “The Kite Runner,” he soars as an emotionally haughty Afghani papa who grows closer to his son as he becomes humbled by life.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Favorites

Cate Blanchett, “I’m Not There”

Romola Garai, “Atonement”

Jennifer Garner, “Juno”

Catherine Keener, “Into the Wild”

Jennifer Jason Leigh, “Margot at the Wedding”

Vanessa Redgrave, “Atonement”

Julia Roberts, “Charlie Wilson’s War”

Saoirse Ronan, “Atonement”

Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”

Emmanuelle Seigner, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Spotlight: Sometimes actors become returning favorites in the supporting categories (double champs Dianne Wiest, Shelley Winters, Jason Robards, Michael Caine). If Cate Blanchett prevails again, she’ll win her second Oscar for doing what she did the first time: impersonating a showbiz celeb. In 2004, it was Katharine Hepburn in “The Aviator.” This time it’s Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There.” Her victory would mark the second time an actor won for portraying a member of the opposite sex, after Linda Hunt’s eerie turn as a male photographer in “The Year of Living Dangerously.”

Possible

Marie-Josee Croze, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Queen Latifah, “Hairspray”

Kelly Macdonald, “No Country for Old Men”

Emily Mortimer, “Lars and the Real Girl”

Michelle Pfeiffer, “Hairspray”

Meryl Streep, “Lions for Lambs”

Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton”

Kate Winslet, “Romance and Cigarettes”

Spotlight: This is the ingenue category in which voters like to hail new talent (Jennifer Hudson, Rachel Weisz). This time it may be Kelly Macdonald, who won an Emmy last year as a mysterious young Scot who has an affair with an older British diplomat in “The Girl in the Cafe.” In “No Country for Old Men,” she “registers potently,” said Variety, as the frazzled, trailer-park wife of suddenly rich Josh Brolin. Her character’s so befuddled that she has no problem with the answer he gives when she asks where he got all that moolah: “at the gettin’ place.”

Long shots

Jennifer Connelly, “Reservation Road”

Ruby Dee, “American Gangster”

Olympia Dukakis, “Away From Her”

Marcia Gay Harden, “The Mist”

Fernanda Montenegro, “Love in the Time of Cholera”

Samantha Morton, “Control”

Susan Sarandon, “In the Valley of Elah”

Marisa Tomei, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”

Spotlight: At 83, Ruby Dee has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, plus an Emmy and a Grammy, but she’s been ignored by Oscar voters. No doubt she got their attention, however, with that fierce slap she gives two-time winner Denzel Washington in “American Gangster” when she discovers her son’s shenanigans. Considering the loss of her husband, Ossie Davis, will academy members reach out to her as they did to Katharine Hepburn following the death of Spencer Tracy? (Two consecutive Oscar wins.) If Dee triumphs, she’ll become Oscar’s oldest acting winner.

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THE PICKS

Gold Derby blogger Tom O’Neil prognosticates the award season for The Envelope. For ongoing discussion of the many races for gold -- Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys and more -- visit TheEnvelope .com.