We're revisiting the 1997 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

You’d be forgiven for not immediately lingering on Mozelle Batiste Delacroix. When we first meet her she’s one of several dozen luminous, handsomely dressed and manicured faces floating around a party at the home of the Batiste family in 1960’s Louisiana. Mozelle’s very first scene, giggling with her sister about some poor woman’s teeth before they’re interrupted, is largely dominated by other actors, and she doesn't mind sitting back and enjoying her niece and nephew’s shenanigans.

There’s also a lot of stuff happening around her. Not just the laying-out of key figures and relationships but the very nature of Eve’s Bayou as a memory play...