Updates: More Oscar picks, an interview, and another win for Marion

Marion has recently been named Best Actress by the InterNational Online Cinema Awards, edging out Amy Adams (Enchanted), Julie Christie (Away From Her), Nicole Kidman (Margot at the Wedding), Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days), and Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) for the win.

Next, In a piece entitled Class Acts, Michael Phillips, of The Chicago Tribune, names Cotillard's nomination one of the best performances honored this year by the Oscars. The other three on his list? Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Julie Christie (Away From Her), and Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah).

Here's what he had to say about Cotillard:

Marion Cotillard, 'La Vie En Rose'

Physical transformation may not be everything when it comes to playing a historical figure, let alone drawing serious awards consideration. But when you see the French actress Marion Cotillard in "A Private Affair" or even the smug Russell Crowe romantic comedy "A Good Year," you know you're in the presence of serious, easygoing glamor. As Edith Piaf, Cotillard had to trade one sort of charisma for quite another. The result is a performance full of technical facility as well as emotional yearning. I don't love the movie -- it's no better and no worse than other Hollywood biopics -- but in the long, late sequence in which the singer learns of her boxer lover's fate, Cotillard cracks open a legend's perpetually breaking heart.

He also gives his Oscar predictions, saying that while he would vote for Ellen Page to win Best Actress, he believes it will go to either Cotillard or Christie. Currently, he gives Christie the slight edge. There is a video up at the Tribune link.

On the other hand, both Wesley Morris and Ty Burr, top film critics for The Boston Globe, believe that she SHOULD win, even though they do not think she will take it. Remember: Cotillard won the Best Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics, where both men were voters. Click on thumbnails for full sizes:

Finally, David Germain, of The Hartford Courant, has published an interview with Cotillard, entitled, Marion Cotillard As Edith Piaf Gets It. A snippet:

Marion Cotillard's first acting job was a baffling but valuable lesson in the art of denying real life in favor of make-believe.

She was 3 or 4 and playing a girl whose mother lay dead before her. Cotillard, an Academy Award nominee for "La Vie En Rose," could not understand why the director insisted the actress playing the dead woman was her mother, when her actual mom was right there on stage with her, playing a different woman.

"I remember he said to me, 'It's your mother,' and in my head, I was like, 'She's not my mother, because my mother is there!'" Cotillard said with an emphatic gesture as she recalled her first stage gig. "It was so disturbing. I really remember this feeling I had."

The rest can be found at the Courant link.