Four nominations in one year - the actress who could make Oscars history

No film star is having a year as good as Sandra Hüller. With Project Hail Mary smashing the box office, and new film Fatherland earning rave reviews at Cannes, she could do the unprecedented. We all know a potential Oscar clip when we see one. It's that sequence in a film that seems designed to show off an actor's skills – usually via a tear-jerking emotional speech. On one level, the sequence can be a film's heart and soul. On another, more cynical level, it's obvious that it will be shown again and again if the actor is nominated for an Academy Award. In Pawel Pawlikowski's new period drama, Fatherland, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday to rave reviews, Sandra Hüller has an impeccable Oscar clip. Pawlikowski's stark black-and-white film follows Thomas Mann, the author, and his daughter, Erika, played by Hüller, as they drive through the newly divided Germany in 1949. Her Oscar clip is set in a hotel lobby, where Erika talks on the phone about a recent death in the family. She keeps herself under control, but flashes of fear, grief, hope and tender concern flicker across her face. It's a heart-wrenching moment in an exceptional film. We may see it regularly whe