Oscars 2009: The red carpet power list

1 Freida Pinto *NEW ENTRY* Pinto is the breakout star of the red-carpet graduating class of 2009. She wears colour better than anyone else around. After passing her mock exams - sorry, Golden Globes - in sunshine-yellow Christian Lacroix, she is top of the class in this periwinkle blue John Galliano dress. The shape of the neckline and the single lace sleeve look a little sari-influenced (subtext: "I'm in Slumdog! Which won everything!"). Photograph: ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA

2 Tilda Swinton * NO CHANGE * How cool is this woman? She doesn't even have to wear a dress to be a showstopper. She makes everyone else, with their sucked-in tummies and their spangly necklaces, look tryhard and dorky. You have to be very tall, reed-slender and have regal posture to carry this Lanvin two-piece off. Proves once again that you don't have to play the Tinseltown princess to look elegant. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

3 Kate Winslet UP 2 Kate has been playing the Hollywood game recently, getting all skinny and gushy, and she has got the Academy eating out of the palm of her hand as a result. So she was never going to frighten the horses with her frock. Yves Saint Laurent works for her: great structure in the bodice, and I like the fishing-net-caught-in-the-waistband detail although the fashion blogosphere is divided on this. I'm guessing the hairdresser said "Grace Kelly", although I'm getting "headmistress", as one so often does with Kate. She looks a bit like she's about to give the upper fourth a dressing down for pillow fighting, but that's all part of Brand Winslet. Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

4 Angelina Jolie UP 3 "Yes, I'm unbelievably hot. And yes, I am mama to six fabulously photogenic children. Oh, and I'm married to Brad Pitt. We're both nominated, of course. And you are? Scram, loser." Jolie walked down the Oscar red carpet in Elie Saab, radiating the excitement levels of someone queueing for stamps at the post office. Anyone would think the Oscars is the least exciting or glamorous part of Jolie's Sunday. Maybe it is, what do we know? We are not worthy of her presence, and she knows it. Photograph: ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA

5 Penelope Cruz UP 4 On the night when she won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as a promiscuous Latin vamp, Cruz does some solid-gold carbon-offsetting to shore up her leading-lady credentials. This 1950s vintage Balmain gown is fit for a 1950s virgin bride, and reminds any casting directors watching that she can do doe-eyed and adorable too. Good work, Cruzy. Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

6 Marion Cotillard DOWN 5 Last year, Cotillard was the Freida Pinto of 2008: the new exotic name with the cute accent who everyone wanted at their party. Then, she was the undisputed belle of the ball in a mermaid gown and wave-set hair. What to wear in your follow-up year is the Hollywood starlet's equivalent of the Difficult Second Album, but we love this Dior black swan gown. She is Odile to Cruz's Odette, and the on-trend belt will help get her picture in the right magazines. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

7 Mickey Rourke *NEW ENTRY* Every Oscar year has its Björk moment, and Mickey Rourke's necklace featuring an image of his recently deceased chihuahua, Loki, was 2009's. And that's not even all! How do we love thee, Mickey? Let us count the ways: the Jean Paul Gaultier white suit, the black waistcoat, the so-wrong-it's-right greaseball hair, the fob chains, the belt chains, the sunglasses, the lapel pin . . . Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Joint 8 Dev Patel and Dominic Cooper *NEW ENTRIES* Some men look incredibly handsome when they wear black tie. Others don't. What can I say? Life's not fair. Slumdog's Dev Patel and Mamma Mia's Dominic Cooper are both red-carpet new boys who look Bond-perfect in classic, utterly immaculate black tie by Burberry. Photograph: Getty

10 Marisa Tomei UP 8 The other comeback story of the Wrestler is having a Hollywood resurgence. Wearing va-va-voom Versace on Oscar night is a good way to remind Hollywood you are still a peach. The soft pearl-grey is beautiful with Tomei's colouring, and stops the big-dress-with-train looking too Pronuptia. Photograph: Rex Features

11 Sean Penn UP 10 As a rule, messing about with the black-tie formula makes men look gimmicky and silly; for gravitas, best stick to the classics. But we can make an exception for Hollywood's premier maverick. The black-on-black works here. Just don't try this at home. Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

12 Beyonce DOWN 5 Disappointingly, Ms Knowles, who has been working some seriously avant-garde fashion of late, has gone a bit Vegas on us. Also, when the shape is this theatrical, a dramatic black-and-gold colour scheme is surplus to requirements. But she still looks stunning: shiny and curvy like the old-fashioned wrapped-up sweetie she is. Photograph: Stewart Cook/Rex Features

13 Jessica Biel UP 5 Biel is an actress, but let's be honest: she's here as Justin Timberlake's girlfriend. When you're there as Girlfriend rather than Actress, it's best to dial the look down a notch to avoid looking desperate - and that's what Biel does so successfully here, in champagne-coloured Prada. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

14 Miley Cyrus DOWN 2 Cyrus told red-carpet reporters that this dress, by Zuhair Murad, is inspired by The Little Mermaid. Now, Cyrus is 16, so this is excusable (although Murad, who is 35, perhaps ought to know better). But if anyone didn't know that Cyrus was America's No 1 teen sweetheart, they do now - so job done, I guess. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

15 Brad Pitt DOWN 2 Pitt still looks really good, as he always has done in his Tom Ford tux. However, he is modelling a David Yurman man's cocktail ring. If he had driven down the red carpet on a Harley, we could not have been more sure he was on the verge of a mid-life crisis. Photograph: ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA

16 Meryl Streep DOWN 7 Yes, corseted evening dresses are really uncomfortable. However, this dress clearly demonstrates why wearing a floaty, wispy, unstructured number instead is not the answer. It also shows why "mushroom soup" has yet to catch on as a go-to colour for red-carpet glamour. Photograph: DANNY MOLOSHOK/REUTERS

17 Natalie Portman DOWN 13 The sugar-pink is too Disney. We get that, at 27, you don't want to dress too old, but Portman's USP is being Classy Young Hollywood, and this is more Audrina from the Hills than Audrey Hepburn. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

18 James Franco *NEW ENTRY* Franco would have been higher but for the Button Issue. On a three-button jacket such as this, you can button the top two buttons, or just the middle one. On a two-button jacket you can button both buttons, or just the bottom one. You never do up only the top button, as this will make even a beautiful jacket sit badly. Lecture over. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

19 Jennifer Aniston DOWN 9 The dress: fine. Meh. But the kooky, California-girl hair is a mistake. Cameron Diaz started doing this beachy hair number at the Oscars a few years ago, and look what happened to her career. Photograph: Rex Features/Rex Features

20 & 21 Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick DOWN 6 Memo to SJP: enough already with the Carrie-style prom dresses. You are in danger of becoming the Miss Havisham of Hollywood, haunting the red carpets of your glory days in your sentimental finery. Also, what is going on with Matthew Broderick's hair? It's gone from preppy-cute to creepoid. And is that a knit tie? Photograph: Peter Brooker/Rex Features

22 Anne Hathaway DOWN 19 Hathaway is getting paler and thinner by the month. This happened to Nicole Kidman, and she ended up starring in Australia and getting married to whatsisname. Just saying. Photograph: JASON REED/REUTERS

23 Philip Seymour Hoffman DOWN 6Hey, skater dude! With this hat, Hoffman makes his entree to the Brad Pitt therapy group for actors whose misguided accessorising suggests the existence of 'issues'. Also, back to buttons: having no buttons done up on the suit is the red carpet equivalent of leaving your flies undone. Photograph: ANDREW GOMBERT/EPA

24 Heidi Klum * NO CHANGE * Why is she even here? I typed "What does Heidi Klum actually do?" into Google - we're all about scrupulous research on the fashion desk - and, apparently, she is a Hollywood Actress. But the same site also has a Pictures [sic] Gallery of her, so I'm still none the wiser. Frankly, Roland Mouret really should know better. Nice earrings though. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

25 Shirley MacLaine DOWN 4 Breaking with tradition works best when you have a winning alternative. Shunning a beautiful frock in favour of a trouser suit that would work better on a department store perfume saleswoman does not add up. Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP