A stunning actress armed with extraordinary talent, Zhang's stilted English language skills don't stand in the way of this disarmingly beautiful performance in Rob Marshall's poetic adaptation of Arthur Golden's bestseller.

Who else is there: Well, Maria Bello stole the show from Viggo Mortensen in David Cronenberg's A History Of Violence, but as Charlize Monster Theron and Hilary Swank have showed us, one of the best ways of getting the gold is to become ugly, ideally dressing like a man. Which is why Felicity Huffman's work in Transamerica may well get noticed. Theron, too, is nominated for North Country, but is nowhere near likely range.