2010 Academy Award for Best Actress: Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep?

The 2010 Academy Award for Best Actress has garnered considerable attention this year. The category is filled with worthy nominees who turned in memorable performances, like Carey Mulligan (An Education); Helen Mirren (The Last Station); and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious). However, the actresses considered the strongest contenders to win the Best Actress Oscar 2010 are definitely Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia). Who will win the 2010 Academy Award for Best Actress this year: will it be Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep?

2010 Academy Award Best Actress Nominee Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock is a first time Oscar nominee for her lead acting role in The Blind Side. Bullock is known for acting in crowd-pleasing blockbuster films like Speed, While You Were Sleeping, Miss Congeniality and The Proposal, not critically acclaimed art films. Bullock has even appeared in some excruciating box office duds like Forces of Nature and Two Weeks Notice. Why then is she considered the favorite to win the 2010 Academy Award for Best Actress?

Sandra Bullock's portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side completely changed the way the industry views Bullock as an actress. Once considered a popular movie star and box office draw but not really a serious artist, Bullock's outstanding performance in The Blind Side elevates her to join the ranks of powerhouse Hollywood actresses like Streep.

The Academy loves it when a movie star actress turns in an Oscar worthy performance that displays some serious acting skills. Best Actress winners Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Halle Berry were all at one time best known for being popular movie stars, not "serious" actresses. Berry and Theron, both former models, won their Best Actress Oscars for dramatically playing against their movie star good looks (Halle Berry won for Monster's Ball and Charlize Theron took home her award for Monster.)

Nicole Kidman received some critical acclaim for her role in To Die For, but she was perhaps best known for playing the role of Tom Cruise's wife. All that changed when she donned a fake nose to play writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours, and The Academy was so impressed with her transformation that they gave her the Best Actress Oscar. And who could forget how Pretty Woman Julia Roberts, possibly the world's best loved movie star, walked away with a Best Actress Academy Award for the very serious, scenery chewing role of Erin Brockovich?

Historically, The Academy seems to love awarding the Best Actress prize to the female movie star who unexpectedly shows some real depth as an actress by turning in a career-making performance. Bullock started to register as a serious artist with her roles in Crash and Infamous, but The Blind Side really made Hollywood sit up and take notice. This is why Sandra Bullock is the favorite to win the 2010 Academy Award for Best Actress, and unless there is a serious upset, she'll probably win the Oscar.

2010 Academy Award Best Actress Nominee Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep is such a great actress, she's in a class by herself. This is probably why the legendary Streep has been nominated for a record sixteen Oscar nominations! This year, Meryl Streep is a 2010 Academy Award Best Actress nominee for her role as chef Julia Child in the film Julie and Julia. It's too bad then, that Streep will probably walk away empty handed when the awards are handed out on Oscar night.

Meryl Streep has been Oscar nominated many times, but she hasn't actually won an Academy Award since way back in 1982, when she received her Best Actress Oscar for her work in Sophie's Choice (Streep won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1979 for her role in Kramer vs. Kramer.) Since she came to fame in the late seventies in films like Julia and The Deer Hunter, Meryl Streep has been considered the greatest film actress of our time.

Sixty year old Streep is enjoying box office success lately in films like Mamma Mia and Julie and Julia, and she is also regarded as a true acting genius. She has two acting Oscars and holds the record number of Academy Award nominations, yet year after year, she attends the Oscars but doesn't receive another Academy Award.

This must be frustrating for an artist of Meryl Streep's caliber, and it probably has to do with the fact that no other actress today is quite in her league. The Academy loves to reward a fresh young face in the Supporting Actress categories, and they often give Best Actress Oscars to female movie stars that turn in work that is totally unexpected. Streep is so consistent and reliable, creating Oscar worthy roles year after year, and she tends to be overlooked when it's time to bestow the Academy Award.

Meryl Streep is usually the Oscar bridesmaid, rarely the bride! Her 16 Oscar nominations for acting are quite an achievement, and they do set her apart from the rest of the pack. If Sandra Bullock receives the Best Actress Academy Award at the Oscars, Meryl Streep is still very much a winner.

The Oscar ceremony is Sunday March 7, 2010 at 8 p.m. on ABC. Don't forget to tune in and see whether Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep will walk away with the 2010 Academy Award for Best Actress!

Sources:

http://oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000658/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000113/