Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2022

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

“WHO IS SHE?”, a philosopher named RuPaul once asked.

As with that question, character introductions are vital in storytelling. First impressions are usually given importance right from the page, as those will establish our relationship with said characters. Screenwriters strategize on how they describe a character when they enter the story. Likewise, directors pay attention to how characters enter the story for the first time. Whether those entrances become consistent with the rest of the character or are ultimately subverted as the narrative unfolds even further, they matter a lot. 

Since it is a truth universally acknowledged that Best Actress is perhaps the single most important category in the long history of the Academy Awards, particularly in the lives of its (mostly gay) fans who worship actresses to the ends of the earth, this new series will be focusing on how each of the five Best Actress-nominated performances were introduced in their respective films. Narrative functions, filmmaking decisions, emotional implications, and stray observations included...

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Oscar Volley: Best Actress

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Baby Clyde and Juan Carlos Ojano discussing Best Actress.

CARLOS: A two-time Oscar winner gunning for her third, a rising star playing a Hollywood legend in a highly divisive film, a character actress getting an overdue recognition, a recurring nominee playing Steven Spielberg's mother, and an international star in the role of a lifetime in the Best Picture frontrunner. It's quite an exciting mix of actresses plucked from a highly competitive field.

But we would be remiss if we don't address the elephant in the room, to just get it out of the way...

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Vote on Best Actress. (Plus 'How'd they get nominated?')

The Best Actress chart is fully updated for your viewing pleasure with details, stats, and trivia. Here's one curio trivia bit. We believe that this is only the second time in history when all five Best Actress nominees are from different countries! (Usually it's some combo of Americans, Brits, and Aussies). All that plus our semi-annual "How'd They Get Nominated?" breakdown. Before anyone takes offense at the guesstimate percentages (it's all in good fun) please note that these are NOT performance critiques. A truth: You can give the most brilliant performance of all time and still be nominated for other reasons entirely. Awards races, Oscar and otherwise, are meritocracies only in the utopian ideal sense; People are people (including, thus, all voting bodies be they fans, high brow critics, or Academy members) and their reasons for voting in any given way are multiple and varied and heavily influenced by all sorts of things. Plus, it's all subjective too!

Adrien Brody & Ana de Armas in "Blonde" (Netflix)

Let's start with Ana de Armas in Blonde for an example. How'd she get nominated?

67% Role. Awards bodies have always loved Marilyn portrayals which have led to Emmy, Oscar, and Tony nods for various actresses across multiple decades (though not wins curiously enough).
20% Performance. Even people who didn't love the movie admired her work in it.
6% Globe nomination / ceremony shout-outs revived interest in a crowded race.
5% Knives Out + No Time To Die = rapidly ascending stardom (Big stars have a built in advantage in popularity contests) 
2% Early traction! That September release struck while the iron was hot from Venice festival buzz. Blonde was widely seen (via Netflix) before all but one of the major competitors for the nomination arrived (Michelle Yeoh was the exception).

The other four breakdowns are on the Best Actress page where you can vote daily in the "Who SHOULD win?" poll. 

"Elvis" and "The Batman" lead the MUAHS nominations

by Cláudio Alves

"Elvis" | © Warner Bros.

The Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild have announced their nominees in this, their awards' tenth year. Some surprises abound, mainly regarding what films were shut out, but plenty of the Oscar finalists show up throughout their categories. The Batman and Elvis lead with three nominations each, while, in the land of TV, American Horror Stories and Pam & Tommy rule over with triple nods. Though, if one wants to point towards the MUAHS favorite production, we must venture into their Live programming portion, where Legendary dominates with a total of five nominations. HBO recently canceled the show, so it's good to see it go out with a bang among the guilds.

After the jump, discover the full list of nominees and some stray observations…

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Awards Season Catchup: "Blonde" on Netflix

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s hard to wait to watch a film months after its release and not be at least somewhat affected by what the public thinks about it. To say that the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde has not received favorable mentions is an understatement. Still everyone has opinions so it seemed possible that there might be something worthwhile about it, like Ana de Armas’ Golden Globe-nominated performance or the Oscar-shortlisted makeup and hairstyling. Seeing the NC-17 rating and the daunting 2-hour-and-47-minute runtime at the start of the film sets up certain expectations, and, somehow, this film still manages to surprise, and not in a good way.

Blonde opens in black-and-white on a young Norma Jeane Mortensen (Lily Fisher) and her mother Gladys (Julianne Nicholson), who shows Norma a photo of a celebrity she claims is her father. Gladys quickly descends into a manic state, driving her young daughter straight towards a fire while everyone else is running the other way...

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