With "The Queen" opening today, the Best Actress Oscar race continues to fall into place. It's been (another) thin year for women, but here are some of the names that could be read Jan. 23 when nominations are announced.

	Laurie Sparham/Courtesy of Miramax Films.
	Dame Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen."

Helen Mirren

Age: 61.
Movie: "The Queen."
Role: Queen Elizabeth II, whose private mourning of Princess Diana doesn't sit well with her weeping subjects or new prime minister, Tony Blair.
Oscar history: 0-for-2. Nominated for supporting actress for "The Madness of King George" and "Gosford Park."
Wild-card factors: Hollywood loves it when actresses go dowdy or play a real person, and she does both. Also might benefit from voters who like her mate, director Taylor Hackford.
Odds: Has emerged as the front-runner, since her brilliant turn makes this movie.

	Associated Press Kate Winslet Click photo for larger image.

Kate Winslet

Age: 31
Movie: "Little Children"
Role: An unhappy suburban wife and mother who falls into a feverish affair with a stay-at-home dad (Patrick Wilson) in a neighborhood roiling with drama. Movie likely to open here Nov. 17.
Oscar history: 0-for-4. Nominated for supporting actress for "Sense and Sensibility" and "Iris," and lead in "Titanic" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
Wild-card factors: Best Actress often goes to a younger woman, Winslet has been acting for a decade and a half and she helped to make "Titanic" the top-grossing movie of all time. Plus, she will be seen in "The Holiday" this Christmas.
Odds: Her youth may work against her, as Oscar voters figure they can reward her in the future.

Annette Bening Click photo for larger image.

Annette Bening

Age: 48.
Movie: "Running With Scissors."
Role: Deirdre Burroughs, mother of real-life memoirist Augusten Burroughs. An unsuccessful poet who craves fame, she suffers bipolar mood swings and is often medicated out of her mind. In the 1970s, she abandons her teenage son to a nutty therapist and his family.
Oscar history: 0-for-3. Nominated for supporting actress in "The Grifters" and lead in "American Beauty" and "Being Julia."
Wild-card factors: She balances marriage to Warren Beatty and four children with an acting career that's not littered with throwaway roles. She isn't afraid to show her age and hasn't turned into a duck-lipped, smooth-skinned mannequin.
Odds: Many critics love her but not the movie, which turns her chances lukewarm. If voters are given screeners of this film, they may not make it to the end, where some of her best scenes are.

	Meryl Streep Click photo for larger image.

Meryl Streep

Age: 57.
Movie: "The Devil Wears Prada."
Role: She who must be obeyed, a fashion magazine editor who makes impossible demands of her staff.
History: 2-for-13, with Academy Awards for her supporting turn in "Kramer vs. Kramer" and tour-de-force lead in "Sophie's Choice." Also nominated for supporting roles in "The Deer Hunter" and "Adaptation" and leading work in "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Silkwood," "Out of Africa," "Ironweed," "A Cry in the Dark," "Postcards from the Edge," "The Bridges of Madison County," "One True Thing" and "Music of the Heart."
Wild-card factors: She sang in "The Prairie Home Companion," channeled a queen ant in "The Ant Bully," can't seem to deliver a bad performance and actually hasn't won since April 11, 1983.
Odds: Voters might think been there, done that. Also, her role may seem lightweight compared to Mirren's, Hollywood takes her talent for granted and Oscar loves new faces. All this could change if she's bumped into the supporting race.

Penelope Cruz Click photo for larger image.

Penelope Cruz

Age: 32.
Movie: "Volver."
Role: Raimunda, a hard-working Madrid woman who is juggling ghosts from her past and present.
Oscar history: Never nominated.
Wild-card factors: Movies are an international business, and Academy Award voters love Pedro Almodovar, who wrote and directed this festival favorite. Makes up for "Sahara," in which she played a physician searching for the source of a deadly plague. On the minus side, movie is in Spanish and hasn't opened in the States yet.
Her chances: Slim. In this case, it would be an honor just to be nominated.

Also in the running ...

Other movies with promising female roles, not screened here yet: "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus," "The Painted Veil," "The Good German" and, of course, "Dreamgirls."