The 84th Annual Academy Awards is just three days away, and anticipation is building in Hollywood after the deadline for Oscar voters to provide this year's selections finally passed. The biggest night on the film's industry's calendar was dominated by The King's Speech in 2011, and it could be another clean-sweep on Sunday (February 26, 2012).

Silent movie The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin is tipped to win Best Picture, with some bookmakers offering odds of 1/40 that is takes home the big prize. Though Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Alexander Payne's The Descendants are also in the running, it's looking increasingly like it could be The Artist's night, though it's the votes of the Academy members that count. One of those voters, legendary actress Joan Collins, seemingly let the cat out of the bag at the Montblanc Vanity Fair Party in Bel Air this week, hinting to Entertainment Weekly that she had opted for the French silent-flick. Collins said, "I'm not going to tell you.I'm a voter, so I'm not allowed to say. But I think it's called The Artist". Collins is a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, among many other industry professionals, meaning she gets a vote in each of the Oscar categories. The Artist is already the overwhelming favorite to scoop Best Picture on Sunday, but Collins and her fellow voters have also had the tricky task of separating the likes of Jean Dujardin, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, as well as choosing between Meryl Streep and Viola Davis.

Academy bosses are now likely to know who has scooped this year's prizes after the deadline for votes passed at 5pm on Tuesday (February 21, 2012). All Academy member ballots arrived at the downtown Los Angeles offices of accountants Pricewaterhousecoopers.