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Melissa Leo won the best supporting actress Oscar for her matriarchal role in The Fighter. We take a look at who she was up against in this category.

Age: 36

Nominated for: The Fighter

The character: The iron-willed girlfriend of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward, who clashes with his family over his dreams of winning the title.

Previous Oscar wins: None

Previous Oscar nominations: Two

She said: "When I got the role, David [O Russell] informed me that I looked like a girl who couldn't punch, which made me want to punch him."

The critics said: "Amy Adams truly broke out of her shell to play a tough talking, ballsy broad and it worked so well."

Age: 44

Nominated for: The King's Speech

The character: Queen Elizabeth

Previous Oscar wins: None

Previous Oscar nominations: One

She said: "There's so much hype, I just hope people don't get immensely disappointed and resent it deeply when they see it."

The critics said: "Helena Bonham Carter is a warm, charming, puckish presence as Elizabeth, very much aware of her royal status when first approaching Logue using a pseudonym."

Age: 50

Nominated for: The Fighter

The character: Bleach-blonde matriarch Alice Ward, mother of boxers Micky and Dicky, plus their seven sisters.

Previous Oscar wins: None

Previous Oscar nominations: One

She said: "Having walked in Alice's shoes, she's actually a very gentle and loving lady. But she saw an opportunity for her boys, and rose above whatever she felt she might be inside of herself and made careers for the two of them."

The critics said: "The real enigma here though is Alice. What makes her tick? Leo plays her with a pinched, determined face and overly styled hair, a woman missing the gene for maternal instincts."

Age: 63

Nominated for: Animal Kingdom

The character: Janine "Smurf" Cody, the matriarch of a Melbourne crime family.

Previous Oscar wins: None

Previous Oscar nominations: None

She said: "I'm a nice middle-class girl in real life, and I'm a mom and a grandma, and I usually play sweet characters."

The critics said: "Jackie Weaver's Grandma Smurf sustains a sweetness and unconditional love for her boys that only gets scarier as the film goes on."

Age: 14

Nominated for: True Grit

The character: Mattie Ross sets out on the trail of the man who robbed and killed her father.

Previous Oscar wins: None

Previous Oscar nominations: None

She said: "The idea of revenge coming from a 14-year-old girl isn't, you know, exactly right."

The critics said: "As Mattie, newcomer Hailee Steinfeld doesn't eclipse memories of Kim Darby, who was the best thing about the earlier movie, but she's equally assured in the role, facing down all comers with a clear-eyed self-possession that recalls Frances McDormand's police chief Marge Gunderson in Fargo."