2- Taraneh Alidoosti (About Elly)
3- Samantha Morton (The Messenger)
4- Marion Cotillard (Nine)
5- Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds)
Runners-up: Susanne Lothar and Leonie Benesch (The White Ribbon), Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds)
4- Alfred Molina (An Education)
5- Peter Capaldi (In the Loop)
Runners-up: Peiman Moadi (About Elly), Paul Schneider (Bright Star), Niels Arestrup (A Prophet)
3- Golshifteh Farahani (About Elly)
4- Tilda Swinton (Julia)
Runners-up: Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist), Penelope Cruz (Broken Embraces)
5- Ben Foster (The Messenger)
Runners-up: Colin Firth (A Single Man), Robin Williams (World’s Greatest Dad), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Shahab Hosseini (About Elly), Joaquin Phoenix (Two Lovers)
Amiresque 
Neat post. I really gotta watch The Messenger. And About Elly of course.
Quite impressive that you prepared this post in the midst of all the school crap we have going on 😉
Nice to see Ben Foster up there. I was really struck by his work. I thought he would have been a much better choice at the Oscars than the lazy Morgan Freeman nomination.
Morgan Freeman's nomination is a perfect example of how front-runner status can get an actor a nomination even if the movie turns out to be a flop.
And it's really interesting to me how the attention to Wooyd Harrelson's performance never really helped Foster or Morton. Then again, one can ask the same question about Anthony Mackie's case with Jeremy Renner.
We have 4/5 the same Best Actress lineup! I just haven't seen “About Elly” and so Golshifteh Farahani on my list is replaced by Zooey Deschanel in (500) Days of Summer. Also, it's awesome to see The White Ribbon in your best ensemble lineup. What an awesome cast.