A Look at the Oscar Race for Best Actress: The Nominees, Who Should Win and Who Will Win

As part of Popculturology's Oscar Week, we're going to be breaking down the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress characters. Today, we're going to look at the race for Best Actress.

The 2013 race for Best Actress is a fascinating one. Ever since Silver Linings Playbook premiered, Jennifer Lawrence has been the favorite to win this award, buoyed by a commanding portrayal as a young woman who lost her husband, is a recovering sex addict and now finds herself struggling to find acceptance in the world. It looked like Lawrence would breeze through awards season and claim her first Oscar at the end of February. Over the past few weeks, though, a couple possible obstacles have emerged. While Lawrence has won most of the major pre-Oscar awards, Amour's Emanuelle Riva and Zero Dark Thirty's Jessica Chastain are still nipping at her heels. Riva, the oldest first-time Best Actress nominee in Oscar history, is probably the biggest challenger to Lawrence's coronation.

Head past the jump to check out all the nominees for Best Actress, including their Oscar histories, who should win and who will win.

The Nominees for Best Actress
Jessica Chastain
Maya (Zero Dark Thirty)
Oscar history: The Help (2011, nominated for Best Supporting Actress)

Jennifer Lawrence
Tiffany Maxwell (Silver Linings Playbook)
Oscar history: Winter's Bone (2010, nominated for Best Actress)

Emmanuelle Riva
Anne Laurent (Amour)
Oscar history: First nomination

Quvenzhane Wallis
Hushpuppy (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
Oscar history: First nomination

Naomi Watts
Maria Bennett (The Impossible)
Oscar history: 21 Grams (2003, nominated for Best Actress)

Who Should Win
Jennifer Lawrence. I think it's important that we all remember that Lawrence is just 22, and she's already been nominated twice for Best Actress, a feat that no other actress had ever previously accomplished. She's that good, and she was that good in Silver Linings Playbook too. While Lawrence's performance was stunning for a 22-year-old actress, it was a performance of a lifetime for an actress at any age.

Who Will Win
Jennifer Lawrence. Considering the fact that Lawrence has a decades of a career left, I can't wait to what else she has in store for us. Sure, The Hunger Games and X-Men movies are nice popcorn flicks, but when you have talent like Lawrence does, you know that there's more to come. Keep an eye on Riva this Sunday though ...