Best Actress at the dawn of the Age of Television: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

From 1950 to 1955, only one performer won the Best Actress Oscar from an original screenplay rather than a stage-to-screen adaptation. She was Audrey Hepburn, who took the prize for 1953's ROMAN HOLIDAY, at the 26th Academy Awards.

While most of the world was rebuilding from the brink of ruin, the USA, whose territories the war barely touched, transitioned from WWII into a period of booming prosperity. As discussed in my last alternative Oscar history post, this led to a rise in conservatism and the dreaded Blacklist. But as the 50s dawned on Hollywood, another existential threat rose to challenge the big screen. I’m, of course, talking about TV, that essential symbol of midcentury domesticity. If in 1950 the appliance was still a novelty, things changed quickly. Five years later, nearly 60% of American households held court around those all-too-tempting goggle-boxes. For the film industry, this was catastrophic, as it posed unprecedented competition.

People could now get what they used to get from cinemas from the comfort of their own homes. It’s not unlike the crisis caused by the rise of streaming platforms in our day and age. Only, back then, the American movie industry responded through an arms race for new forms of spectacle, technological innovations that the television’s small screen couldn’t hope to replicate. CinemaScope and other versions of widescreen filmmaking became standardized over the square-ish-ness of the Academy ratio. Genres like the Biblical epic surged in popularity, as did other marks of lavish opulence, musicals and the like. But also films that tested the Code’s limits, from Tennessee Williams’ adaptations to the gamine-lite (dis)pleasures of The Moon Is Blue. 

But how did this reflect on the Best Actress race, both that of our actual Oscar History and the one dictated by my personal preference? And what about the rest of the world? Believe it or not, Hollywood isn’t the end-all-be-all of cinema…

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Best Actress in the Post-War: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Olivia de Havilland won Best Actress twice in the late 40s. First, for Mitchell Leisen's TO EACH, HIS OWN in 1946, and, then, for William Wyler's THE HEIRESS in 1949.

At long last, after a month of endless TIFF and NYFF reviews, the Alternative Best Actress series makes its grand return. For now, let's ease back into pre-fall festival season rhythms with a write-up that considers only four Oscar years, 1946-49. 

They were those of the immediate post-war, when the Best Actress queens of the decade's first half - Garson, Davis, Hepburn - seemed to lose the Academy's favor, while new favorites emerged. In one of Old Hollywood's most infamous and contested family feuds, Fontaine won the Oscar before de Havilland, but Olivia finished the 40s with two little golden men to her sister's one. Rosalind Russell thought it was finally her time to win gold, but the Academy had other ideas, like a newfound fondness for preposterous Scandinavian accents and Loretta Young. Jane Wyman won for a mute performance, while Susan Hayward shouted and wallowed her way to multiple nominations. Finally, having grown tired of one red-headed English Rose, AMPAS turned their eyes to another, with Kerr closing the decade with the beginning of her "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" run of Best Actress nominations.

But that's reality, actual Academy Award history. What about my own version? If I had a ballot, some things would've gone differently, to say the least...

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TIFF 51: Best Actress Watch – “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” and “Prima Facie”

by Eurocheese

Rinko Kikuchi could become the first Japanese Best Actress Oscar nominee ever if HA-CHAN, SHAKE YOUR BOOTY! goes all the way.

Continuing our quest to find potential Best Actress contenders among TIFF screenings, we have already seen nomination potential in The Debut, Being Heumann and Onwards and Sideways. Next up, we have the Canadian premiere of Rinko Kikuchi’s performance in Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! after its Sundance competition slot earlier in the year, and the international premiere of Cynthia Erivo’s work in the film adaptation of Suzie Miller’s one-woman play, Prima Facie…

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TIFF 51: Best Actress Watch – “Being Heumann” and “Onwards and Sideways”

by Eurocheese

Ruth Madeley might be a new Best Actress contender for her work in BEING HEUMANN.

Coming into the fall festivals, no category has been a larger question mark in the Oscar race than The Film Experience’s highest honor – Best Actress. Aside from a couple of clear frontrunners (see my comments on The Debut), there appears to be room for a number of new challengers to find their way into the race. How likely are some of the pictures debuting at Toronto to factor in? If these two world premieres are any indication, the race is heating up. There’s Being Heumann, starring a heroic Ruth Madeley, and Onwards and Sideways, with the lovely Laura Linney…

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TIFF 51: “The Debut” Explodes off the screen and into the Oscar race!

by Eurocheese

In Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut, heltered housewife Mona Friedman (Julianne Moore) is the only person who applies for a small role in her local community theater musical other than perennial starlet Serena Cherry (a lovely cameo from Bernadette Peters). When the diva drops out for a better part in Annie Get Your Gun, the grouchy director, Jerry (Paul Giamatti), is forced to cast Mona, much to his chagrin. The film’s trailer suggests a straightforward premise, and the audience assumes we know where it is headed. When Jerry decides to push Mona to test her limits to draw a better performance out of her, though, he breaks something in her. And then, the film is off to the races...

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