Meryl Streep’s performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady is tipped to win the actress her third Oscar.
The 62-year-old, who has been nominated a record seventeen times, has already won a Bafta award and a Golden Globe for her performance as the former British Prime Minister. Now at tonight's 84th Academy Awards she is the critics' favourite to claim top prize.
Streep previously won the Best Supporting Actress statuette for Kramer vs Kramer (1979) and claimed Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice (1982). Her compelling performance in The Iron Lady had the critics reaching for superlatives with some citing it as her best ever.
But Streep faces tough competition from Viola Davis’s portrayal in The Help. Following complaints in 2010 that the Academy did not have enough black nominees, the political winds may be blowing the way of The Help.
Streep herself has backed Davis for the Oscar, championing her acting as worthy of the industry’s biggest gong.
Meanwhile another favourite, The Artist, is vying to become the first silent movie to win Best Picture winner since Wings at the inaugural ceremony in 1929.
