Introducing the Smackdown Panel for '87
Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 10:30AM Are you ready for the season finale of this massive Supporting Actress Smackdown season? We're closing with 1987 on Thursday, November 19th and your votes count.
Let's meet your fellow panelists, shall we?
ATO ESSANDOH
Ato Essandoh is an actor. He plays Dr Kwesi Weisberg-Abban on Netflix’s astronaut drama Away...
Past projects include Tales from the Loop, The Code, Altered Carbon, Vinyl, Chicago Med, Jason Bourne, Django Unchained and more. He’s got a podcast about the artistic journey called "Radio Zamunda" and another about racism and friendship called “Unrelated.” [Twitter | Instagram | IMDb]
MANUEL BETANCOURT
Manuel Betancourt is a lapsed academic and a freelance culture writer. He’s a contributing editor to Film Quarterly as well as the film columnist for Electric Literature. He’s a contributor to the award-winning middle grade graphic novel The Cardboard Kingdom (and its upcoming sequel!) and the author of Judy at Carnegie Hall, a book all about that dazzling diva’s famed 1961 concert. [Twitter | Instagram]
NAVEEN KUMAR
Naveen Kumar is a culture writer and editor whose recent work appears on them.us, The Daily Beast, InStyle, and The Hollywood Reporter. He serves as theatre critic for the queer news site Towleroad and contributes reviews to Time Out New York. His arts features have appeared in The New York Times, L.A. Times, Vox, Teen Vogue, and more. [Twitter]
KATHIA WOODS
Kathia Woods is an entrepreneur/radio host. She’s the and the creator of CupofSoulShow, where she covers pop culture featuring minority creatives in movies, and television. Kathia was born in Munich Germany but is of Brazilian descent. She is fluent in 5 languages and a graduate of Temple University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Art. Kathia is a member of several great organizations amongst them Philadelphia Grammy Chapter, PABJ, NAHJ, AAFCA, OAFFC, The Alliance of Women Film Journalist, Critics Choice and LEJA. In her spare time, she likes to read, travel and cook. [Twitter]
HOSTED BY...
NATHANIEL ROGERS
Nathaniel is the creator and owner of The Film Experience. He is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics and a longtime Oscar pundit here at TFE. His writing has also appeared at other publications including Vanity Fair, Vulture, Slate, Towleroad, and Winq.
If you are a working actor, a renowned critic, film historian, a novelist, or an arts professional of some kind, chances are good that he has meant to invite you to a Smackdown panel, or would have if he happened to know you were obsessed with supporting actresses. [Twitter | Contact | Instagram]
Reader Comments (17)
Our host picked Ato just to be closer to Swank.
Great lineup! Yay Manuel!
This is gonna be such an Olympia landslide (and deservedly),
I'm rooting for an Aleandro surprise win. Also, wow, this is an amazing panel. Can't wait to read their thoughts and hear your podcast conversation.
I hope that the panel agrees with the academy because having rewatched the film during the summer Olympia's win and performance cannot be denied.
I look forward to what commentors suggest as other women who should've been considered in 87 as there was a lot of women who I'd have gone to before the other 4 women in this category.
At this point I must suggest
Anjelica Huston, The Dead
Karen Allen, The Glass Menagerie
Carmen Maura, Law of Desire
Veronica Cartwright, The Witches of Eastwick
Kathy Baker, Street Smart
Vanessa Redgrave, Prick Up Your Ears
Joan Cusack, Broadcast News
Carroll Barker, Ironweed
Any of these women would've made worthy supporting nominees. I'm not familiar with anyone on this panel so I look forward to the discussion
All the Ann(e)s will cancel each other out. This should be a runaway victory for Olympia Dukakis.
As much as it will likely be a runaway for Olympia, I am SO EXCITED to hear people discuss the Ann and the Annes - I've always been fascinated by those 3 nominations.
I am almost never one for career Oscars (see, e.g., Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman). But Ann Sothern was one of the true all-time great Hollywood celebrities. She was a terrible actress, but a true celebrity and seemingly all around good lady who made Hollywood what Hollywood supposedly is. I wouldn't have been mad if she had won in 1987.
Yay, this smackdown is almost here! Especially since this year's category is made up entirely of actresses receiving the only Oscar nominations of their careers (I suspect someone has done the research of how many times this has happened, but I suspect not many), I'm looking forward to a discussing of each of these actresses lives and careers, in addition to these roles in these films.
Ato Essandoh - whew. gorgeous. I legit gasped scrolling down.
let me go subscribe to Netflix.
I would add Elaine Stritch & Dianne Wiest in SEPTEMBER to Eoin's wonderful list.
I’m so excited for this as I feel that 1987, in general, is a year that just doesn’t get talked about that much. So far the only one I have seen straight through is THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN. I had to watch it twice to figure out how the hell that nomination happened. I’ve seen bits and pieces of MOONSTRUCK and FATAL ATTRACTION - hope to change that by Smackdown!
Everyone's anticipating the fun of discussing both Moonstruck and Olympia Dukakis... not surprisingly.
I just want to bid welcome to this cool group of judges, we are lucky Nathaniel has roped them in.
But I'm willing to bet that 1987 wasn't a hard Oscar season to sell them on.
The verdict may not be in doubt but reliving that year is going to be huge pleasure.
(just think of all those images of Cher and her Oscar outfits, plus all those clips of Olympia's great lines) "Snap out of it"
CharlieG - Ann Sothern, a terrible actress? I’ve only seen her in A Letter to Three Wives and Lady in a Cage but she damn near steals the show in both.
Excited to hear these wonderful people discuss this eclectic roster.
Away was just cancelled last week
Looks like you saved the very best (and most beautiful) panel for last!
I'm Team Olympia ("Thank you! Thank you for answering my question!") but also wouldn't be surprised if Norma gave her some serious competition.
NathanielB: You're probably not going to read this, but 1987 is the only the second year where all the supporting actresses received their (so far) only nominations. The only other year where this has happened (again, so far) is 1980.
Looking forward to the Smackdown!