Actressexual Honors - Best Leading Actresses of 2024

 By Nathaniel R

It took me a second viewing to appreciate what Margaret Qualley was up to in "The Substance". Great work!

Reckless sex workers, repressed CEOs, witches-in-training, and a triple helping of “Elizabeths” (!?!) factor into the incredible characterizations offered up by gifted actresses in leading roles this past film season. As we say goodbye to the year in cinema just behind us, a tribute to my personal dozen favourites (alpha order) from leading ladies. Though it’s a full dozen I still had to leave out highly enjoyable star turns from June Squibb in Thelma and Scarlett Johansson in Fly Me to the Moon, as well as Amy Adams' funny and underappreciated juggling of dowdy and feral as “Mother” in Nightbitch. The actual shortlist for my own Best Lead Actress honors is revealed at the end. 

top dozen - alpha order

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Reader Poll: Which acting nominee will be back again quickly?

by Nathaniel R

One of our recent traditions here at TFE is to guess which of the season's most celebrated actors will be the quickets to be enmeshed in Oscar battles again before you know it? VOTE DAILY (for the next week) on who you think it will be:

online polls

Some history of how well your votes have fared over the last two seasons follow...

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Demi Moore lost the Oscar but she’s still a winner

by Cláudio Alves

THE SUBSTANCE (2024) Coralie Fargeat | © MUBI

Bedecked in a silvery Armani Privé number and Chopard diamonds, Demi Moore arrived at the 97th Academy Awards like a winner. She left a winner, too, despite the lack of a little golden man complementing her crushed ice glamour. Saying such things may seem like a pity party or a way for fans to cope with their idol's losses, but it rings true here. Though she lost the Oscar, Demi Moore effectively changed the narrative of her career and forced both the industry and the public to reassess her worth as a performer, her history, her legacy. From "popcorn actress" to respected thespian, this is a reinvention of miraculous proportions and deeply deserved, too.

In many ways, these things are bigger than AMPAS' golden trophy, and may even have a bigger impact. After this season, nobody will look at The Substance star the same way ever again. At least, I won't…

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A History of Sex Workers and Oscar Wins

by Nathaniel R

Mikey Madison, Best Actress winner for "ANORA"With Mikey Madison's much buzzed about semi-surprising Best Actress win for Anora (2024) and Madison and her writer/director Sean Baker both paying tribute to sex workers in their speeches, let's talk sexworkers and the Oscars. It is a myth that playing a sex worker will get you an Oscar but it is also not wholly false that these roles are of great interest to Hollywood. Many actresses have been celebrated for playing women of ill repute whether they're traditional prostitutes, strippers, sex therapists, or it happens to be a character detail that they used to trade sex for money, or whatnot. What this says about Hollywood and the public's taste in entertainment is... well, it says many things... but they do call it 'the oldest profession' for a reason.

Male actors are not nominated for this sort of role (which also says a lot about society and Hollywood) even when they deserve to be...

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Almost There: Marianne Jean-Baptiste in "Hard Truths"

by Cláudio Alves

This year's Academy Awards saw Mikey Madison's work in Anora become the 100th performance to take the Best Actress Oscar. There's much to say about this race, good and bad, and I'm currently preparing some stuff on Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres. But today, I would like to reflect on the category beyond the five women AMPAS chose to recognize. Because, in my opinion, the year's best performance bar none, as well as the film which contains it, was absent from the Oscars altogether. For the season's last Almost There, I invite you to take a trip into Mike Leigh's cinema, a world of deep character work and improvisation, collaborative writing and ensemble dynamics, tonal whiplash and social observation. Let's talk Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths…

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