A few weeks ago the Australian acting great was a legitimate contender for an historic two Oscar nominations with a lead actress nod for her haunting portrayal of a vengeful, alcoholic Los Angeles detective in Destroyer and a supporting nod for playing a mother in the gay conversion drama Boy Erased.

Some savage critics' reviews in top US newspapers, winless nights at the recent Golden Globes and Critics Choice ceremonies and the failure to pick up a single nomination for next weekend's Screen Actors Guild Awards has sent Kidman's campaign on a downward spiral.

Hollywood bibles Variety and The Hollywood Reporter predict Kidman will be shut out of both categories when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reveals its nominees on Wednesday 12.20am AEDT for the February 24 Academy Awards.

"Though being rendered unrecognisable is often a key to Oscar success, for Nicole Kidman it only emphasises the artificiality of her role and performance," the Boston Globe's Peter Keough wrote in his Destroyer review.

Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born), Glenn Close (The Wife) and Olivia Colman (The Favourite) have remained top picks for lead actress nods while Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Yalitza Apariciao (Roma) have emerged as stronger candidates to fill out the five nominee slots at Kidman's expense for Destroyer.

Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) is the short-priced favourite to win supporting actress with Amy Adams (Vice), Emma Stone (The Favourite), Rachel Weisz (The Favourite), Claire Foy (First Man) and Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) tipped to squeeze Kidman out.

Fellow Aussies Toni Collette (lead actress for Hereditary) and Margot Robbie (supporting for Mary Queen of Scots) have also drifted off the Oscar radar.

Despite the potential loss of Australian star power in the acting categories, Aussies are expected to be prominent at the Oscar ceremony with NIDA graduate and former Sydney Theatre Company resident designer Fiona Crombie a near certainty for a production design nomination for her work on The Favourite, a comedy-drama set in the early 18th Century around Queen Anne.

The Favourite's Australian screenwriter, Tony McNamara, is also expected to receive an original screenplay nomination.

Another expected Australian nominee is the cute short animated film Lost & Found by Andrew Goldsmith, Bradley Slabe and Lucy Hayes.

Lost & Found, a stop motion film about a knitted toy dinosaur that has to unravel itself to save a knitted fox, was named on a short-list of 10 films in contention for an Animated Short Oscar.

Perth pop star Troye Sivan is also a solid chance after making the original song nomination short-list for Revelation from Boy Erased.

The category will be a battle among some of music's biggest names, with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper favourites for their song Shallow from A Star is Born and Kendrick Lamar and SZA in the hunt for All the Stars from Black Panther.

Australian Associated Press