Michelle Williams rides a wagon to Oscars excitement

There has, however, been much to enjoy at Venice, from Aronofsky's bizarre ballet thriller Black Swan, to Sofia Coppola's funny and affecting Somewhere, which some have been calling Lost in Translation 2. Natalie Portman, star of the former, and Stephen Dorff, the lead in Somewhere, are being talked about as Oscar candidates. But my money is on Michelle Williams, for her role in Meek's Cutoff, from director Kelly Reichardt. Williams is brilliant as Emily Tetherow, a 19th-century pioneer whose wagon train gets lost in the Oregon mountains, and captures a wandering native American. The film is far from action-packed, but still gripping – and it could well grab Venice's Golden Lion and even score Williams an Oscar.