Best Actress goes international: An Alternative Oscar History
Wednesday, November 11, 2026 at 10:00PM ;)
From 1956 to 1958, Deborah Kerr received three consecutive Best Actress nominations. According to such sources as Mason Wiley and Damien Bona's "Inside Oscar," she was considered a favorite for 1957's HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON, but lost to Joanne Woodward.
So, the title I gave this new chapter in my ongoing Best Actress series might seem a tad strange. After all, the real Oscars didn’t start honoring thespians for non-English-speaking work for a while.
Following Nathaniel’s advice, I’m only covering three years this time – 1956 to 1958 – a period when AMPAS nominated a grand total of zero performances of the kind, and didn’t even pay much attention to British cinema to add insult to injury. It was a time for Hollywood celebrating Hollywood, perchance in reaction to an awareness that the industry, as it existed then, was fast approaching irrevocable change. The era of the big studio was facing its twilight. The most international stuff you’ll see is more of Kerr’s unfortunate nominations, Magnani recognized for a George Cukor melodrama, and Bergman welcomed back to Tinsel Town by winning her second Best Actress trophy for one of her worst performances ever.
Alas, this isn’t a chronicle of the real Academy Awards, but an alternative Oscar history according to my personal taste. And, at long last, those pesky eligibility lists have started to include a lot of international cinema – the American public was more into subtitled movies in the 1950s than they are now – which means my Best Actress lineups are suddenly quite multilingual and multinational…