The Curious Case of the Double Nominee
Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 9:30AM 
To get an Oscar nomination is a wonderful stroke of luck, to get two is even luckier. To get two in the same year is the equivalent of finding a four-leaf clover in a sprawling field. If you're an actor this is particularly true since the Academy's rules make it impossible for the same performer to get two nominations in the same category simultaneously. That's why, for instance, Margot Robbie could only score a single nomination this season. Both her contending performances were supporting roles so, even if she won enough votes for a double nomination -- which she might have if BAFTA is indication -- the performance with fewer votes would have been locked out.
For Scarlett Johansson that wasn't a problem. Lead or Marriage Story and Supporting for Jojo Rabbit. She thus became the 12th actor to achieve this rare honor, the 9th woman, and if she wins either award, she'll be the 8th performer to do so. Statistically speaking, there's around 64% probability of victory for a double nominated actor. Let's celebrate the 12 double-nominated actors in the history of the Academy Awards after the jump…
FAY BAINTER in 1938
Best Actress, White Banners
Best Supporting Actress, Jezebel (winner)
A deserved double citation and even more deserved win. Bainter was a character actress so her chances to play the lead were sadly scarce, which makes the nomination for White Banners all the sweeter.
TERESA WRIGHT in 1942
Best Actress, The Pride of the Yankees
Best Supporting Actress, Mrs. Miniver (winner)
Hollywood and the Academy were crazy about Teresa Wright in the early 40s. Not surprisingly, it was her beatific character work in a Best Picture winner that guaranteed her a statuette.
BARRY FITZGERALD in 1944
Best Actor, Going My Way
Best Supporting Actor, Going My Way (winner)
After 1944, the Academy changed its rules so that this sort of tomfoolery couldn't happen again.
JESSICA LANGE in 1982
Best Actress, Frances
Best Supporting Actress, Tootsie (winner)
Everyone knew Meryl Streep was going to win the Best Actress Oscar for Sophie's Choice so Lange's Oscar was widely seen as a consolation prize for losing that award and her sterling work in Frances. Either way, this is a cracking double citation for two wonderfully different performances, both awards-worthy in their own right.
SIGOURNEY WEAVER in 1988
Best Actress, Gorillas in the Mist
Best Supporting Actress, Working Girl
Despite her double victory at that year's Golden Globes, Weaver left the Oscars empty-handed. To this day, she's never won Hollywood's most coveted little golden man.
AL PACINO in 1992
Best Actor, Scent of a Woman (winner)
Best Supporting Actor, Glengarry Glen Ross
Pacino rode the wave of an overdue narrative straight to the prize. However, after the golden year of 1992, the actor seemed to fall off the Oscar radar. He only returned this year with The Irishman.
HOLLY HUNTER in 1993
Best Actress, The Piano (winner)
Best Supporting Actress, The Firm
One of the best Best Actress winners ever and one of the most mystifying supporting nominations of the 90s, Holly Hunter surely left an impression in the 1993 cinematic year. At least, she won for the right movie.
EMMA THOMPSON in 1993
Best Actress, The Remains of the Day
Best Supporting Actress, In the Name of the Father
It's astounding how, despite getting two nominations, the Academy still managed to snub Thompson's best performance of 1993. That would be her Beatrice in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing.
JULIANNE MOORE in 2002
Best Actress, Far from Heaven
Best Supporting Actress, The Hours
2002 was the year of Julianne Moore playing discontent 50s housewives. She never really stood a chance with The Hours, but she did get some richly deserved critics' awards for her performance in Far from Heaven.
JAMIE FOXX in 2004
Best Actor, Ray (winner)
Best Supporting Actor, Collateral
Category fraud alert! These are two inarguable leading roles. It could be argued, however, that, despite him winning for the more traditional biopic performance, Foxx's best performance of 2004 was as the disgruntled cab driver in Collateral.
CATE BLANCHETT in 2007
Best Actress, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Best Supporting Actress, I'm Not There
We'll never forget Blanchett's expression when faced with her shouty Oscar clip for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It's one of the actress' worst performances and quite a contrast to her bold adventurous work as a facet of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON in 2019
Best Actress, Marriage Story
Best Supporting Actress, Jojo Rabbit
After years of worthy work being systematically ignored by the Academy, this feels like just recognition.
Can Scarlett Johansson overcome either of her categories' frontrunners and be the next actor to turn a double nomination into a glorious win?
Reader Comments (66)
Lange is definitely supporting in Tootsie. Watched film last year. It's absolutely Hoffman's film and hers is an obvious supporting turn, tho major. Let's not get carried away. That's away. That's similar to calling Madsen a lead in Sideways.
FrenchToast; You mean Hunter and Thompson?
Interestingly, it seems to me that only one person (kermit_the_frog) that Julianne Moore is Leading in The Hours. She is totally leading, the movie has three leading characters (Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep) each with its own story, with characters that revolve around them.
And the editing of the movie helps as we jump from character to character and return. If the movie were with which we started with the story of a character and ends up continuing with another and so on I would think they are Supporting. But The Hours is not the case.
It is likely that two years after his double nomination in 1993, Al Pacino almost got two nominations the same year. The year that Al Pacino was nominated for Dick Tracy he was not nominated for The Godfather: Part III.
Let's not forget that if things had been done as they should have been, Alicia could have obtained two nominations the same year: The Danish Girl and Ex Machina. I still believe that if the campaign had been earlier in Leading for The Danish Girl Alicia Vikander would have made the competition to Brie Larson.
The two nominations is such a waste of space. Looking at some of these pairings ... The work does not hold up, even to present.
Wow!! So much passion for this topic!!
I alws feel tt Bainter won for the wrong movie. She is a total scene stealer in The Shining Hour, also released in 1938. U kno its a helluva perf when she manages to steal the spotlight fr Miss Joan Crawford!! 😂
It's sad tt Weaver is the 1st double nominee to go home empty handed, n is never todate, invited back to award contention again 😕 She shld've won for Working Girl!! Maybe her bitch boss is too much for voters back then??
I luv Scarjo perf in Marriage Story too ♥ n she will hav a stronger case had the major critics rallied ard her ala Lupita, n I kno many twitter fans r predicting her as an upset, but imho, the ship had sailed n all the 4 acting cat r securely locked n ironclad, ala 2 yrs ago....
I’m still crazy about Teresa Wright in the 2020s, but I’m not the Oscars so it doesn’t mean much.
The double nomination is as much as Scarlett is getting. If anyone else is winning Best Actress (they’re not) it’s Saoirse.
I’m a fan of ScarJo in JoJo Rabbit and it seems to me that double-nominations are often for two performances that demonstrate an actor’s range. This is absolutely the case with SJ’s Marriage Story and JoJo performances which are so tonally different - the raw emotion and naturalism of MS juxtaposed with the playful and highly stylised JoJo. When people think of one performance they are reminded of how different the actor was in the other film and each one gains from the comparison.
It feels a bit messed-up this year because I think ScarJo (and Adam Driver) should win for Marriage Story and yet it seems the only performance that will triumph is Laura Dern’s. I love Laura Dern and am behind the idea of her owning an Oscar but her work in Marriage Story is not particularly noteworthy to me - I actually like ScarJo in JoJo better (tho Florence Pugh would be my pick).
It’s a real shame that ScarJo is unlikely to win anything from her deserved double-noms - Oscar has ignored her for so long and she’d be a far more exciting winner than Zellweger or Dern - I’ll be gunning for an upset.
Also, nice list for future honoraries, Nathaniel - the shout-out for Judy Davis made my heart skip! If only....
I was expecting this post, thanks! Would you make a part 2 were the almost-there-double-nominees are mentioned? The first names that come to my mind are Kate Winslet for The Reader and Revolutionary Road and Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War and The Savages. I was shocked when Laura Linney was the performance nominated for the latter film.
Diane Keaton in 1977 might have gotten 2 nominations for Best Actress: Annie Hall and Looking For Mr; Goodbar (sadly never released on DVD for 40 years). I think she would have won regardless, as both were superb.
Has no one else picked up that of the four actresses to not win either of their double nominations, three of them then went on to win an Oscar at a later ceremony.
So that's a whopping 91% of double nominees have won either on the night, or later.
Even Emma Thompson and Cate Blanchett, who were previous winners when they were double nominated, went on to each grab a second Oscar after their double nomination.
Good signs for Scarlett... And makes Sigourney's losses even harder
Sigourney should have won for Working Girl!!!
Scarlett has to win for Marriage Story, please lord
Nathaniel, thank you for including Isabelle Adjani and Marsha Mason in your list of actresses who rate an honorary Oscar. They don't get mentioned as often as Glenn Close or Sigourney Weaver or Liv Ullmann but are both super deserving. I saw Adjani on stage recently and she is just as brilliant there as she is in the movies.
Zellweger is the most vulnerable and if the academy feels as strongly against her in comparison to her competitors (namely Johansson) once contemplating and comparing as this commentariat (especially Nathaniel), then a Scarlett lead trophy is likely. Again I’m using all your reactions only beacause they are so vehement.
Mike M.--thank you for the shoutout to Marsha Mason. She is so deserving of an honorary, but I also am hoping against hope that she soon gets another juicy role and can get that competitive win. That would bring me so much joy.