With Oscar season under way, several of Hollywood's top actresses are hoping to receive a coveted nomination for Best Actress at the 2014 Academy Awards.

Sandra Bullock is receiving some of the best reviews of her career for her dramatic work in the blockbuster space drama Gravity. She is one of the top contenders expected to get an Oscar nomination for the upcoming awards show. 

Bullock will have to contend with Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine. Blanchett is considered the frontrunner to win the award for Best Actress for her role as a neurotic socialite whose life is turned upside down after losing her riches.

Perennial nominee Meryl Streep has another big performance this year as the lead of August: Osage County. Streep plays the brassy matriarch of a dysfunctional family.

Emma Thompson is also expected to be a top contender for her work in the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks. In it, she plays P.L. Travers, the writer of Mary Poppins who is resistant to let Walt Disney adapt her novel.

Veteran actress Judi Dench will likely round out the category for the British drama Philomena. Dench stars as a woman who goes on a search for her long lost son.

Other contenders expected to be in the hunt for a nomination are Amy Adams in the highly anticipated drama American Hustle, Kate Winslet in the indie drama Labor Day, film festival standout Adele Exarchopoulos in Blue is the Warmest Color, Julie Delpy in the romantic comedy Before Midnight and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for her own romantic comedy, Enough Said.

Here are the 10 contenders in the hunt for a Best Actress Oscar this season: