Comment on 2017 Oscar Predictions: Who Will Win Best Actress?

La La Land, which leads the field with a record-tying 14 nominations, is poised to dominate (it won't win all 14 since it's double-nominated in Best Original Song), and one of its key wins should come in Best Actress. Loving never got the traction it deserved this season and her nomination -- the film's sole nod -- was a total but welcome surprise, as she displaced Arrival's Amy Adams, who had hit every precursor. Huppert is the Riva, who sadly died last month, this year: a French icon giving a career-best performance in a foreign-language film with massive critical backing. The problem for her is that her film's subject matter -- a rape revenge tale -- makes it a hard sell for voters to watch. [...] Huppert, who'd join Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) as the only people to win for French-speaking roles, has been working the campaign trail hard -- she even smartly presented at the BAFTAs to make sure she wasn't out of sight, out of mind -- and Stone has yet to beat her head-to-head at a major precursor; the only time they were nominated together was at Critics' Choice, which Portman won. Stone, who won the comedy/musical Globe, SAG and BAFTA, has a previous nod under her belt already (Birdman two years ago), is in the undeniable Best Picture frontrunner, and at 28, she's also the perfect age -- the average age of Best Actress winners is 29 (by comparison, Adrien Brody is the youngest Best Actor winner at 29) -- for this coronation. If La La Land and Stone win as expected, it'd be the first time in 12 years and just the 12th time overall that Best Picture and Best Actress went to the same film (this has happened 27 times with Best Actor; of these, three times has a movie won picture and the lead categories). The 89th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, airs Sunday, Feb.