Cate to lead strong Aussie Oscar pack

This year's Oscars are shaping up to be a big one for Australia, with at least eight potential nominees.

OSCARS NIGHT

(AAP)

This year's Academy Awards could be one of Australia's most successful, with at least eight genuine chances of not only being nominated, but climbing the stairs inside Hollywood's Dolby Theatre at the March 2 ceremony to collect Oscar statuettes.

Chief among them will be Cate Blanchett, who this week won the Golden Globe best dramatic actress award for her performance in Woody Allen's comedy-drama Blue Jasmine.

On Thursday, at the unfortunate hour of 5.38am in LA (Friday 12.38am AEDT), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce its Oscar nominees and Blanchett is certain to be named in the best actress category, with Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Judi Dench (Philomena), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks) and Amy Adams (American Hustle) the likely other candidates.

But she won't be the only Australian.

"I'm just going to sleep easy and have a clear mind," Sydney-born, LA-based costume designer Michael Wilkinson, told AAP of his plan to sleep through the Oscar nomination ceremony.

"If the phone starts buzzing at 5.30am then it'll be lots of fun, otherwise I'll just be equally proud that I was involved in this movie."

Wilkinson is at short odds to be nominated for his highly-praised work finding and designing the 1970s costumes for Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper in the best picture candidate, American Hustle.

The 43-year-old NIDA graduate is one of Hollywood's elite costume designers, working on back-to-back big budget films including Watchmen, Twilight, Man of Steel and Russell Crowe's upcoming biblical epic Noah.

Wilkinson will likely be competing for the costume design Oscar with another Aussie, The Great Gatsby's Catherine Martin, who like Blanchett has been a regular at the Academy Awards, winning two (costume and art direction) in 2002 for Moulin Rouge! and picking up costume nominations for Romeo + Juliet and Australia.

While Martin picks up awards and nominations, her husband Baz Luhrmann is regularly snubbed by the Academy.

The Academy is expected to bypass Luhrmann again for The Great Gatsby, while Martin is a great chance of another double for costume design and art direction nominations.

Martin's Aussie Great Gatsby art direction partner Beverley Dunn is also expected to be nominated.

The most coveted award in Hollywood is the best picture Oscar and Australian producer Ian Collie is almost certain to get a nomination for Saving Mr Banks, about Australian author PL Travers' battle with Walt Disney to prevent Mary Poppins being made into a musical movie.

Pre-eminent Australian TV scriptwriter Sue Smith, who Collie hired to pen the original Saving Mr Banks script, is also a strong chance to earn an original screenplay nomination.

A year ago the Australian visual effects wizard Dave Clayton picked up the first Oscar nomination of his career for The Hobbit and he is a contender again this year for Peter Jackson's second chapter based on the JRR Tolkien tale, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.

Nicole Kidman's longtime Australian hairstylist Kerry Warn also has a solid chance of a hairstyling-make-up Oscar nomination for his work on The Great Gatsby.


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Source: AAP


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