Emmy Category Review: Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

The lineup in this category was fairly expected, and it’s a superb list. Four of these actresses are here for the last – and in three cases, first – time for these roles, while the other two are past Emmy winners returning to the field of nominees. This race is worth watching because the past two years have resulted in thrilling upsets, first with Jodie Comer for season two of Killing Eve and then with Zendaya for Euphoria. Two nominees from likely Best Drama Series winner The Crown makes things more competitive, paving the way for another potential vote split after Olivia Colman went head-to-head with Jennifer Aniston last year and neither won. Could Mj Rodriguez beat Emma Corrin, or will someone else triumph? 

I’ll try to avoid major plot details in my analysis – but if you’d like more spoiler-filled descriptions, click on the episode titles. Let’s consider each nominee… 

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Elisa's Venice Diary #2: Lost Daughter and lost souls: Sorrentino, Schrader and Gyllenhaal

by Elisa Giudici

Day two, three movies: a luxury, considering how difficult it is to get tickets this year. Usually, the Venice way is to queue outside the screening hoping to be able to get inside. If you have a red or blue pass you are reasonably sure to see everything you want, even when you arrive only 5 minutes before the beginning of the show. If you are a green or yellow pass holder, you need to show up early and hope red or blue pass holders are busy somewhere else. Due to Covid-19 safety rules and social distancing, only one-third of available seats can be occupied. It means you have to be really quick to book a seat online, 74 hours before the show. The hot movies sold out in mere seconds so I am incredibly lucky to be able to review three major movies from the main competition today.

The Card Counter (Paul Schrader)
Knowing how austere and morally inflexible Paul Schrader is about cinema (and life) I think The Card Counter is his most  accessible recent movie by pure accident. I really enjoyed it and I think the general public will like this thriller about poker, gambling, and the casino world...

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Oscar Predictions: Will Best Actress be dominated by biopics yet again?

by Nathaniel R

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in "Respect"

We'd love not to be a broken record but until the Academy isn't, we must sing the same choppy tune: The Academy has a biopic problem. They just can't give them up and nearly always view mimicry (of various degrees) as more of an achievement than character creation from scratch. We'll never understand it exactly but it keeps reasserting its truth. So that's always where you have to begin with predictions. This year's Best Actress category has the potential to be entirely performances based on real people.

Not that it will be. There are (that we know of thus far) seven real life characters as female leading roles this season...

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Emmy Watch: Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Our team is breaking down the top contenders in all the major races and highlighting some of our favorites over the next few weeks.

 

By Abe Friedtanzer 

This category is an interesting one because it includes only three past nominees who were all eligible last year, but only one of them was nominated. In a much more open field than ever before, it’s the right time for those who have missed out in crowded years to return again and for a few new faces to break through, especially since past winners like Claire Danes and Viola Davis can’t stage surprise returns because their shows are now over. We all know that last year’s nominee Olivia Colman (The Crown) will be back, and she’ll be joined by her season four costar Emma Corrin (Princess Diana). Beyond that, little is certain. Let’s take a look…

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What went right and what went wrong at the 93rd Oscars.

by Nathaniel R

Which Steven Soderbergh film begins with a ton of promise before getting bogged down in the middle due to its relentless seriouness? Which of his films comes chaotically lurching back to messy life near the climax but still can't stick to the landing? I don't have an answer for this question except to say "The 93rd Academy Awards if it counts!"  And should it?

The Soderbergh produced ceremony made good on its intentions to not be like every other Oscar ceremony. Not that that was ever in doubt given the worldwide pandemic that put such a dampening slog on awards season (among other admittedly more serious effects). More satisfying than the arbitrary changes in presentation or category order -- thrilling even -- was the pre-show buzz that this would feel more like a movie which the "opening scene" bore out...

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