Sarah Michelle Gellar

So 2005 will be remembered as the Year of Will Ferrell, whose five movies manoeuvred his manic performance style into the mainstream. And 2004 was the Year of Jude Law, whose starring roles in five films earned him some Oscar-night ribbing from Chris Rock in February (as well as a humourless defence from fellow thespian Sean Penn). But whose image does the celluloid crystal ball project for 2006?

It should be a very good year for Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. The soon-to-be Mr. Alanis Morissette springboards off his three releases of 2005 (The Amityville Horror, low-budget comedy Waiting and commercial pap Just Friends) into a busy 2006 with five films on the go. He’s currently filming Smokin’ Aces, where he plays an FBI agent tracking down a comedian-turned-mobster-stoolpigeon on the lam. Hot on Reynolds’s heels, though, is Vince Vaughn, Hollywood’s busiest sidekick, who, after four movies in 2005 (such as Wedding Crashers, starring Owen Wilson — and an uncredited Will Ferrell in a cameo) has four more on his schedule, including The Break Up, opposite Jennifer Aniston.

As for female actors, Sarah Michelle Gellar has five films on her plate, including an untitled romantic comedy with Alec Baldwin, which may at last redefine her career post-Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (She’s made only two movies since the TV series ended in 2003: the Scooby Doo sequel and horror flick The Grudge). Meanwhile, Gwyneth Paltrow, who has appeared in only five films in the past four years, including 2005’s Proof, has six movies on her slate in 2006. Paltrow plays singer Peggy Lee in (another) Truman Capote biopic, Infamous; stars in the adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’s Running with Scissors; and embodies Marlene Dietrich in an as-yet-untitled film.

Occasionally, the star-of-the year spotlight can be a little harsh, or even blinding. It’s unlikely, for instance, that Ferrell will pick up an award for any of his films this year, unless Teen Choice creates a category for best screaming modulation in a comedic performance. And after losing the best-actor Oscar to Sean Penn in 2004, Law is now best known for another kind of overexposure: getting caught cheating on his girlfriend, actress Sienna Miller, with his children’s nanny.

But star-going-supernova is a formula that has worked for Paltrow in the past. Her previous stint as a Year-of contender — 1998, when Paltrow appeared in five films — proved winning indeed: She may have starred in forgettable thrillers Hush and A Perfect Murder, but she also picked up indie cred in Sliding Doors, and, more importantly, a best-actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love. And with Paltrow’s recent Golden Globe nomination for Proof, 2006 may well be remembered as the dawning of Gwyneth’s second golden age.