Truth stronger than fiction in vote for Oscars Keeping it real ... Oscar-nominated portrayals of real people. NAOMI WATTS is an outsider to win best actress at the Academy Awards but she has one big advantage over her main rivals. She played a real person. Of all the factors contributing to an actor winning an Oscar, recreating a life has become the most successful. Since 2000, it has worked for eight best actress and six best actor winners. Some of Hollywood's biggest stars have played equally famous identities and less well-known people with remarkable stories. The success of these real-life roles supersedes the cliche that the best way to win an acting Oscar is to play the mentally challenged, as Dustin Hoffman did in Rain Man and Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. Statistics show how dominant these performances have become at the Oscars. Since 2000, 58 per cent of the best actress and actor winners have played real people, compared with just 21 per cent in the previous 12 years. And there will almost certainly be another winner at the 85th Oscars on Monday, Sydney time - Daniel Day-Lewis for his star turn as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. In The Impossible, Watts played an English version of Spanish tsunami survivor Maria Belon. Her competition for best actress is Jessica Chastain, whose character in Zero Dark Thirty is reputedly based on a real CIA operative, and three actresses playing fictional characters, Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, Emmanuelle Riva in Amour and Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild. The head of acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Jeff Janisheski, believes the trend reflects a hunger for real-life stories. On television it has led to the rise of reality shows and dramatised biographies, such as Paper Giants and Howzat! Kerry Packer's War in Australia, and "verbatim theatre" that documents real events on stage. Mr Janisheski believes audiences - and clearly Oscar voters - also enjoy virtuoso performances that mimic real people. "We love the challenge we know they went through to physically embody that character," he says. Sydney psychiatrist and film buff Julian Parmegiani believes actors can bring more depth to their performance when they meet the person they are playing and absorb their behaviour, posture, walk and facial expressions. "They don't have to improvise," he says. There's a feeling of authenticity when you play a real-life character which the actors are able to learn by doing their homework. Dr Parmegiani is impressed by Watts's performance, including the medical authenticity. "She behaved like you would expect a critically ill person would behave," he says. And she looked like a critically ill person. Tune in to our live coverage of the Academy Awards on smh.com.au where we will be live blogging the red carpet and all the action from the ceremony. Poll: Who should win the Oscar for best actress? Emmanuelle Riva, Amour Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty Naomi Watts, The Impossible Total votes: 2040.