In an analysis piece called “Why Are Contenders Dropping Like Flies This Awards Season?,” The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg basically says that 2013’s Oscar competition is really tough. He!s saying that producers and filmmakers who are even a little bit uncertain about their chances are saying “eff it…let’s avoid the grief and the expense by opening next year.”

But in summarizing the Best Actress contenders with the greatest prospects, Feinberg ignores one of the absolute best female performances of the year — Berenice Bejo in Asghar Farhadi‘s The Past.

This is a bit odd given that three of Feinberg’s top ranked Best Actress contenders are on the soft side in terms of (a) having been given a really good role to work with and (b) really delivering the goods. I’m talking about Labor Day‘s Kate Winslet (forget it — not her year), Philomena‘s Judi Dench (spirited older lady behavior and dialogue — nothing that stupendous) and Saving Mr. Banks‘ Emma Thompson (a less-than-transporting portrait of a clenched, spinterish, fairly joyless British woman in a tweed suit). Osage County‘s Meryl Streep, Blue Jasmine‘s Cate Blanchett and Gravity‘s Sandra Bullock are okay, but anyone who says “there probably won’t even be room” for Blue Is The Warmest Color‘s Adele Exarchopoulos is committing a great sin in the eyes of the Movie Godz.