Oscar Volleys: Best Actress is a bloodbath

The Oscar Volleys are almost over. Today, Cláudio Alves, Elisa Giudici and Nathaniel Rogers discuss the Best Actress race...

CLÁUDIO: Say what you want about the merits of Best Director or Best Picture's intrinsic importance, but we all know that Best Actress is where it's at. Certainly here, at The Film Experience, where a love for actressing and a love of cinema are often inextricable. And this year, we have one hell of a race, a good old-fashioned nail-biter that will only be resolved once that envelope's opened.

Will it be a rare triumph for horror and a legitimization of an oft-dismissed talent? Will it be a newcomer's moment to shine, riding the wave of love for her frontrunner film? Will it be an international goddess whose Golden Globe win remains one of the season's biggest and most delightful shockers, breaking decades of Oscar precedent? And what about the persona non grata among us? How will the room react to her glorification as a nominee, even if a win seems out of the question? So many mysteries…

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Gold-Standard Roles: From Tony to Oscar

by Cláudio Alves

This season, Wicked hopes to translate some of its Tony glory to the Oscars, twenty years after the musical competed for Broadway’s highest honors. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, in particular, are now part of a long tradition of performers who took Tony-heralded parts and made them into Oscar success stories. Time will tell if either of them finishes the season with little golden men clasped tightly in their hands. Still, it’s already possible to contextualize them within this peculiar dynamic, this Tony-to-Oscar pipeline. Because we love lists and statistics here at The Film Experience, let’s recall every case when a Tony-nominated role earned itself AMPAS’ seal of approval…

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MONSTRO BEST ACTRESS - Vote Daily!

by Nathaniel R

THE SUBSTANCE

We’re updating all Oscar charts this weekend (if we can manage) and of course we start by spotlighting Best Actress, the category we live for as actressexuals. As is silly tradition, we like to mush all the contenders together and see what we’ve got. A unique caveat: it feels a little weird to play this game in a year where one of the nominees comes from a movie that does create a creature, “Monstro Elisasue”, by fusing women together. ANYWAY… If you stitch all of this season’s Best Actresses together your Bride of Frankenstein beauty is a 47 year old raven-haired American actress (with family ties to the UK and Brazil) enjoying her first ever nomination. Read on for more craziness...

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Best Actress Volley: It's On!

Nick, Nathaniel, and Eric engage in a discussion about everybody's favorite Oscar category:  Best Actress. For the record this conversation started the day of the Globes nominations so watch things narrow down as we speak! 

 

Will a surprise SAG nomination rescue any underperformers?

ERIC:  Nick and Nathaniel, I'm really excited about this volley because the Best Actress category is as always stacked, this year featuring at least a dozen ladies who stand a fairly legitimate shot at a nomination at this point.  I thought it might be fun, before we get to the current leading contenders, to take a look at that back half of the possibilities to gauge your thoughts.  Of the actresses that seem slightly less likely to nab a nomination this year...Kate Winslet, Pamela Anderson, Amy Adams, Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan...do you see the winds changing in the weeks to come where any of them could gather enough momentum to move to the front of the pack?

I'm considering Jolie, Madison, Gascon, Moore, Kidman, Erivo, Torres, and Jean-Baptiste more ahead at this point, but comment as you may.

NATHANIEL:  It does feel like quite a crowded, anything-could-happen* year. Take for example one from your column B: Saoirse Ronan and one from your column A: Angelina Jolie...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2019

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

The Best Actress shortlist in this particular year is noteworthy in that all of them appear at the very beginning of their films.  Three of the five are in the very first shot of their films. One is the first person we see in the film. Meanwhile, another film begins with a different actress (a younger version of the character), but is still the character of the nominated performer.

While not always indicative of how centered they are in the respective narrative of their films, it is nevertheless a striking gesture that informs how we were supposed to enter their stories. Even in two instances where there are other leads aside from the Best Actress nominee, the five films featuring these actresses position them as navigators of their own stories.

Are you ready? The year is 2019...

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