You guys.
How am I ever going to decide on my own awards ballots this year? When the Film Bitch Awards begin in late December / early January - hell even before then when I vote at the annual BFCA "Critic's Choice" Awards -- I will have to make a Sophie's Choices and narrow it way down. There are so many fine performances this year. How will I choose??? Oh god, how will I choose. And with a few films still unseen these two fields could even grow.
BEST ACTRESS - MY LONGLIST BALLOT
in no particular order
- Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
- Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Enough Said
- Jane Adams, All The Light in the Sky [opens December 20th]
- Brie Larson, Short Term 12
- Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
- Emma Thompson, Saving Mr Banks
- Veerle Baatens, The Broken Circle Breakdown
- Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
- Judi Dench, Philomena
- Paulina Garcia, Gloria [Qualifying Run. Opens in January]
- Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color
Can I just have 12 nominees this year?
This drama queen moment has been brought to by the realization that both Garcia and Adams are getting qualifying runs and a recent revelatory rewatch of Enough Said. Damn Julia Louis-Dreyfus just nails the comedy and the pathos of all of those self-mangled relationships and her own proactive empty-nest crisis. It's a performance of great technical precision but also intuitive feeling. And how she manages facial expressions that prompt painful sympathy with a crosscurrent of funny schaudenfreude is beyond.
Seven of these ladies I'll have to dismiss with "in any other year!"... or eight if Amy Adams in American Hustle (the last remaining possibility that I'm aware of) turns out to be great. Who are you rooting for?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - MY LONGLIST BALLOT
in no particular order
- Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
- Margo Martindale, August: Osage County [Opens for Christmas]
- Maribel Verdu, Blancanieves
- Léa Seydoux, Blue is the Warmest Color
- Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler
- Sarah Paulson, 12 Years a Slave
- Joanna Scanlan, The Invisible Woman [Opens for Christmas]
- Melonie Diaz, Fruitvale Station
- June Squibb, Nebraska
- Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station
- Scarlett Johansson, Don Jon
- Scarlett Johansson, Her [Opens December 18th]
- Julianne Nicholson, August: Osage County [Opens for Christmas]
- Kaitlyn Dever, Short Term 12
- Elizabeth Debicki, The Great Gatsby
- Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
- ... and I feel like I'm forgetting someone
I've narrowed it down to 16 favorites (for now) with two possibly grand performances still unseen: Naomie Harris in Mandela, and Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle. I'm not mentioning cameo roles like Alfre Woodard's in 12 Years a Slave since the Film Bitch Awards have their own category for that.
Any FYCs?
We'll do the men as well but there's a few more movies I have to see first.