But she's already got an Oscar. Judi is going to win, even though she's only in the movie for about eight minutes. Because she was supposed to win Best Actress last year for Mrs. Brown, and the Academy feels really badly about letting her down. It's a perfect situation. They pay Dench back for slighting her, and they give an award to a comic performance, thereby avoiding being called stodgy for yet another year.
Life Is Beautiful, is going to win an award.
But not this one. Nick Nolte has gotten a lot of acclaim for his role in Affliction, and the Academy loves to award drunks, but they've never forgiven Nick for making Three Fugitives, so he's out of luck. Tom Hanks was good in Saving Private Ryan. If he won, he'd obviously give a great acceptance speech. The reason he's so good at playing a decent human being is that he IS a decent human being.