The Best of a Bad Lot: Oscar Winning Actresses in Bad Movies

by Seán McGovern

The shade of it all... the 1974 ceremony for the Best Actresses of 1973 (L-R from the bottom corner) Marsha Mason, Ellen Burstyn, Joanne Woodward, Glenda Jackson, Barbra Streisand

Christmas really brings out my contrarian side, and since it's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (awards season), permit me to be a humbug. Those who truly appreciate the Oscars understand that sometimes it is about the politics and not the performance. Academy voters are not infallible, but we shouldn't underestimate their other important role in taking the cultural temperature to find out what and who was hot in cinema in any given year. Without getting into a discussion of who did and didn't deserve their award, there are definitely some great female performances honored in films that may otherwise not have been so deserving. Some potentially controversial opinions after the jump...

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Lunch with Amandla and Russell

by Murtada Elfadl

At a lunch to celebrate The Hate U Give at The Whitby Hotel in midtown New York, I got the chance to chat with the film’s stars Amandla Stenberg and Russell Hornsby about the film and their performances.

During the Q&A portion of the luncheon Amandla told the audience about how she read the book early on and pursued the project because it really spoke to her. So when I had a moment to speak to her later, I asked her what other ideas would she like to push forward with her upcoming projects. She informed me that she’s taking her time with a project she’s working on as a writer and director. However she also wanted to share the truth on screen:

I would love to be in a narrative that was not heteronormative where I don’t have to play straight where I could express myself  with authenticity.

As we discussed on a recent podcast, Russell Hornsby has the very difficult task of having to spell out the themes of The Hate U Give in a few speeches he gives to his onscreen children. In particular I asked him about the speech in which he tells his kids about how to behave if ever stopped by the police. Hornsby talked about doing research but then discarding it to be in the moment and finding the truth in the scene:

I looked at Amandla, I looked at those kids and in every turn I was talking to my kids. It wasn’t Maverick, it was Russell talking to his children. This is a passionate honest moment for me as a father, trying to hold my emotions at bay because it hurts so much that I have to do this.

The Hate U Give is still playing in a few screens nationwide so there’s still time to catch these two amazing performances! 

Fatal Distraction

This exquisite screengrab posted by Peter Knegt here.

All I see when I look at this picture is Glenn thinking of boiled bunny rabbits. She's not going to be ignored, Dan. 

'97 til Oscar

It's 97 days til Oscar so we thought it might be fun to discuss Best Actress 1997. When I asked on twitter and here at the site what everyone's first Oscar ceremony was, this one came up alot. Titanic-mania was in full force in March 1998, bringing the Academy Awards many new young viewers! In fact, Titanic which had opened for Christmas had never left the number one spot at the top of the box office by the time Oscar night rolled around 14 weeks later. (Titanic spent 15 weeks at #1 in total. Can you imagine? in today's movie culture you're basically a true phenomenon if you can stay on top for more than 3 weeks - only Black Panther managed it this year with 5 weeks)

Do you remember these gowns? And who would you have voted Best Actress that year?

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• Judi Dench, Mrs Brown
• Helen Hunt, As Good As It Gets
• Kate Winslet, Titanic
• Helena Bonham-Carter, Wings of the Dove
• Julie Christie, Afterglow

Kate Winslet wasnt winning anything (besides millions upon millions of fans), but the rest of them divvied up the Best Actress gongs. Helena and Julie were neck and neck when it came to critics awards; Bonham-Carter snagged the NBR, BSFC, and LAFCA while Christie swiped the NYFCC and NSFC. That was it for both of them because Dench and Hunt both took home Golden Globes. It was something of a nail-biter between them on Oscar night, though Hunt had the edge given her SAG win. But would they really give a TV star the Oscar (remember the TV and movie divide was so much greater in the 1990s) ???

It's 100 Days until the Oscars! Do you remember your first time watching?

How will you countdown? This upcoming Oscar ceremony will be the 91st annual event. In just 9 years, if the world survives that long, we'll have the Centennial of the Oscar! Can you imagine?! And do you remember the first ceremony you ever watched?

The first one I ever remember watching was the 56th ceremony...

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