The teenage star of an Oscar-nominated film about child soldiers in Africa has been granted a visa that will enable her to attend the Academy Awards.
Rachel Mwanza, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, plays the lead role in War Witch, the Canadian submission in the foreign language film category.
The 16-year-old was cast by Montreal film-maker Kim Nguyen despite having no previous acting experience.
She went on to be named best actress at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals.
Nguyen, whose hard-hitting film also goes under its French title Rebelle, said his young star's story was "truly a Cinderella tale".
"Abandoned by her family and living on the streets as a child, her life has been transformed by the making of the film," he said in a statement.
"To have her journey end on the red carpet is beyond anything she could have dreamed of."
According to the Los Angeles Times, the makers of War Witch are trying to arrange a meeting between Mwanza and her "idol", singer Beyonce Knowles.
"That's all she talks about," producer Marie-Claude Poulin told the newspaper. "The only English words she knows are Beyonce and Rihanna songs."
With only three days to go before this year's ceremony, another Oscar contender has written about being briefly detained while trying to enter the US on Tuesday.
Emad Burnat, the Palestinian co-director of Oscar-nominated documentary 5 Broken Cameras, said he was held with his wife and son by immigration officials at Los Angeles International Airport for "about an hour".
Oscar-winning film-maker Michael Moore, who had been expecting Mr Burnat at...
a dinner for this year's best documentary nominees, expressed his dismay in a blog posting that claimed his friend had been "threatened with deportation".
In a statement, Mr Burnat said the experience, while "unpleasant", was "a daily occurrence for Palestinians, every single day, throughout the West Bank".
The nominees for the 2013 Academy Awards have been revealed in Los Angeles, with Lincoln, Life Of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook among the main nominees.
Who is in the Oscar .
Best film
Amour
Argo
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Life Of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Best actress
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts - The Impossible
Best actor
Daniel Day Lewis - Lincoln
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
Denzel Washington - Flight
Best director
Michael Haneke - Amour
Ang Lee - Life of Pi
David O Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best supporting actor
Alan Arkin - Argo
Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Best supporting actress
Amy Adams - The Master
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook
Best foreign film
Amour
No
War witch
A Royal Affair
Kon-Tiki
Best animated film
Brave
Frankenweenie
Paranorman
Pirates! Band of Misfits (UK title: Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists)
Wreck-it Ralph
Best documentary film
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How To Survive A Plague
The Invisible War
Searching For Sugarman
Music (original song)
Before My Time (Chasing Ice) - Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
Everybody Needs A Best Friend (Ted) - Music by Walter Murphy, Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
Pi's lullaby (Life Of Pi) - Music by Mychael Danna, Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
Skyfall (Skyfall) - Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
Suddenly (Les Miserables) - Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil
Music (original score)
Anna Karenina - Dario Marianelli
Argo - Alexandre Desplat
Life Of Pi - Mychael Danna
Lincoln - John Williams
Skyfall - Thomas Newman
Adapted screenplay
Argo - Chris Terrio
Beasts Of The Southern Wild - Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
Life Of Pi - David Magee
Lincoln - Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook - David O Russell
Original screenplay
Amour - Michael Haneke
Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino
Flight - John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom - Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty - Mark Boal
Cinematography
Anna Karenina - Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained - Robert Richardson
Life of Pi - Claudio Miranda
Lincoln - Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall - Roger Deakins
Costume Design
Anna Karenina - Jacqueline Durran
Les Miserables - Paco Delgado
Lincoln - Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror - Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman - Colleen Atwood
Best documentary short subject
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption
Film editing
Argo - William Goldenberg
Life of Pi - Tim Squyres
Lincoln - Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook - Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty - Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg
Make-up and Hairstyling
Hitchcock - Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Miserables - Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell
Production Design
Anna Karenina - Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Miserables - Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life Of Pi - David Gropman and Anna Pinnock
Lincoln - Rick Carter and Jim Erickson
Short film (animated)
Adam and the Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head Over Heels
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare
Paperman
Short film (live action)
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow (Dood Van Een Schaduw)
Henry
Sound editing
Argo - Erik Aadahl and Ethan van der Ryn
Django Unchained - Wylie Stateman
Life Of Pi - Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall - Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty - Paul NJ Ottosson
Sound mixing
Argo - John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Miserables - Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life Of Pi - Ron Bartlett, DM Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln - Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall - Scott Millan, Greg P Russell and Stuart Wilson
Visual effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R Christopher White
Life Of Pi - Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R Elliott
Marvel's The Avengers (UK title: Marvel's Avengers Assemble) - Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus - Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman - Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson
Friday that the program was still only about 30 percent through its testing. While the crack in the turbine blade may just be a minor flaw, he said, it is unlikely to pose a significant problem to continuing the program. “The Pentagon’s current management is hooked on the airplane and refuses to admit it is a failure,” he said.
