by Murtada
With one day to Oscar, let’s salute 2016’s class of first time nominees in the four acting categories. So many great actors never get nominated, and many just get that one nomination. So it must so exciting for these lucky 7: Isabelle Huppert, Ruth Negga, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Lucas Hedges, Dev Patel and Andrew Garfield.
They range in age from 20 (Hedges) to 63 (Huppert). As befitting that range there are newcomers, legends and everything in between amongst them...
Only two of them arguably came close to a nomination before this year. Garfield received Golden Globe, BAFTA and Critics Choice nominations for The Social Network (2011). Patel was in 2008’s best picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, for which he received BAFTA and SAG nominations.
Looking at this decade of Oscar (2010-2016), there’s usually between 7 to 9 first timers amongst the 20 acting nominees every year. 2012 was the anomaly with just 4 first timers: Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook, Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables, Emmanuelle Riva in Amour and Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Famously that year supporting actor only welcomed previous winners while supporting actress had a mix of previous winners and nominees.
In the last three years Of Oscar, 3 first timers have won. Think Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong’o, all first timers, surrounding Academy favorite Cate Blanchett in the winners photo. It repeated in 2014 and 2015 with Julianne Moore and Leonardo DiCaprio being the multiple nominees surounded by first timers. Unlikely to repeat this year unless we are in for major surprises in Lead Actress and Actor.
Lately Lead Actress has been the least welcoming acting category for first timers, only Brie Larson in Room (2015) won the category in the teens. Supporting Actor on the other hand gave us 4 first timers winning this decade: Christian Bale in The Fighter (2010), Leto in Dallas Buyers Club (2013), J K Simmons in Whiplash (2014) and Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies (2015). Same with supporting actress: Octavia Spencer in The Help (2011), Nyongó in 12 Years a Slave (2013), Patricia Arquette in Boyhood (2014) and Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl (2015).
Will Huppert add an Oscar to the Cesar she won last night?
This year there will definitely be one first timer who wins as Mahershala Ali is the favorite in supporting actor with Dev Patel as his only challenger. But if Huppert has her say, there will be more than one. She indicated to the NY Times that she’s earned the Oscar when asked if she will win:
“Yeah, it’s possible. Yes, for me it’s time ”.