Mia Wasikowska and Hugh Jackman join the race for an Australian Oscar

FOUR Australian actresses are being touted as potential Oscar nominees. But Hugh Jackman is the only bloke in the mix.

FOUR Australian actresses are being touted as potential Oscar nominees in what is already shaping up as an overcrowded year for best actress.

But Hugh Jackman is currently the only Aussie bloke generating any early award-season buzz.

On the back of Tracks' world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Mia Wasikowska's name has been added to a list that already includes Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman.

"Wasikowska is on screen the whole time in a role 180 degrees from recent work like Stoker and Alice in Wonderland,'' said Variety's International Editor Tim Gray in an early Oscars wrap.

Describing Wasikowska as "a Canberra native who jumped virtually out of nowhere into a blossoming career built on consistently interesting choices,"the Hollywood Reporter was similarly impressed by the 23-year-old actress's portrayal of Robyn Davidson, the travel writer and adventurer who trekked 2,700km across the desert accompanied only by a team of camels.

"Her most riveting screen work to date,'' said critic David Rooney.

Oscar experts The Weinstein Company are reportedly close to closing a deal for the US rights to John Curran's Outback odyssey, according to the influential online industry site Deadline.com.

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Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth in upcoming WWII drama The Railway Man. Picture: Supplied.

Competition for the five spots in the best actress category, however, is going to be unusually stiff.

US commentators are already warning of an embarrassment of riches.

Venice has also featured tour de force performances from Sandra Bullock, who plays an astronaut stranded with George Clooney in outer space in Gravity, and Judi Dench's Philomena, the true story of an Irishwoman's 50-year search for the son she was forced to give up for adoption.

Launching at the Toronto Film Festival, from September 5, are August: Osage County, with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts; Devil's Knot, with Reese Witherspoon; and Labor Day, with Kate Winslet.

Blanchett has established an early lead in the Oscars race for her mesmerising performance in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, which has 90 per cent positive rating on the critical aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.

But Naomi Watts's Diana, which will have its world premiere in London on Thursday night UK time is also generating plenty of awards-season buzz.

Naomi Watts in a scene from film Oscar-touted biopic Diana. Picture: Supplied

And Kidman's portrayal of another princess, Grace of Monaco, is another role that is sure to register with Academy voters.

In the lead-up to Toronto, Variety has also been debating whether Kidman's performance opposite Colin Firth in WWII drama The Railway Man would classify as a lead or a supporting role.

Meanwhile, Hugh Jackman is also being touted for his second Oscar nomination in two years for Prisoners, a nailbiting thriller in which he play a vengeance-minded father.

An early viewing at Telluride sent Deadline's Pete Hammond into raptures.

"This is a first-class motion picture experience unlike any other that I, for one, have experienced in a long time,"

According to Hammond, the thriller "features career-best performances, for sure, from Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman."

On the back of an enthusiastic critical response Hammond said Prisoners had joined the list of strong Oscar contenders, so long as audiences and Academy members were able to handle the film's intensity.

According to Variety, Jackman expressed initial reservations about taking on the role as an angry father trying to punish the suspected abductor (played by Paul Dano) of his daughter and another girl.

Although Telluride lacks the red-carpet fanfare of Venice and Toronto, the festival has hosted an impressive list of awards contenders in recent years, serving as the awards-season launching pad for Argo, The King's Speech, The Descendants and Slumdog Millionaire, to name but a few.

Hugh Jackman and Paul Dano in a scene from nailbiting thriller Prisoners. Picture: Supplied.

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