Best Actress in the Post-War: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Olivia de Havilland won Best Actress twice in the late 40s. First, for Mitchell Leisen's TO EACH, HIS OWN in 1946, and, then, for William Wyler's THE HEIRESS in 1949.

At long last, after a month of endless TIFF and NYFF reviews, the Alternative Best Actress series makes its grand return. For now, let's ease back into pre-fall festival season rhythms with a write-up that considers only four Oscar years, 1946-49. 

They were those of the immediate post-war, when the Best Actress queens of the decade's first half - Garson, Davis, Hepburn - seemed to lose the Academy's favor, while new favorites emerged. In one of Old Hollywood's most infamous and contested family feuds, Fontaine won the Oscar before de Havilland, but Olivia finished the 40s with two little golden men to her sister's one. Rosalind Russell thought it was finally her time to win gold, but the Academy had other ideas, like a newfound fondness for preposterous Scandinavian accents and Loretta Young. Jane Wyman won for a mute performance, while Susan Hayward shouted and wallowed her way to multiple nominations. Finally, having grown tired of one red-headed English Rose, AMPAS turned their eyes to another, with Kerr closing the decade with the beginning of her "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" run of Best Actress nominations.

But that's reality, actual Academy Award history. What about my own version? If I had a ballot, some things would've gone differently, to say the least...

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Best Actress in WWII: An Alternative History

by Cláudio Alves

Greer Garson earned herself five consecutive Oscar nominations during WWII. For BLOSSMONS IN THE DUST (1941), MRS. MINIVER (1942), MADAME CURIE (1944), MRS. PARKINGTON (1944), and THE VALLEY OF DECISION (1945). She won the Best Actress trophy in 1942 for William Wyler's first Best Picture champion.

TIFF is almost upon us, so my Alternative Oscar History series will have to take a break. In the meantime, in this last post for a while, let’s look at the period between 1940 and 1945, the war Oscars and the actressing they should’ve honored.

After all, these are my picks, not the Academy’s, so don’t expect an avalanche of Greer Garson in the incoming ballots. The English star found an American home at MGM in the late 30s, just as WWII was breaking out in Europe with Hitler’s invasion of Poland, and was AMPAS’ most beloved star with five nominations and a victory to her name. In this, she edged out Bette Davis’ four nods in the same time span. Then again, though it’s impossible to talk about Hollywood in WWII without acknowledging Davis’ work in initiatives like the Hollywood Canteen, her relationship with the Academy was a rocky one. Famously, she became its first female president in January 1941, before resigning in March. I promise I won’t hold that against her in my votes. It might actually help her case, considering how little I tend to agree with Oscar’s choices…

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My Oscar Completism Project: An Introduction

by Cláudio Alves

Sadly, my Best Actress journey may never be complete as THE BARKER, starring Betty Compson, only exists in the UCLA archive.

Are you an Oscar completist? I'm trying to be, having already seen all the winners in the big five categories and making my way through the rest. However, this year, I'll focus more on the acting races and the nominees that didn't get the gold. After talking with some friends, I realized I'm only 133 films away from having watched every performance ever nominated for an acting Academy Award, from 1928 to 2024. So, that shall be my challenge until December 31st, to check those titles and, hopefully, share my journey with you. This won't be a regularly scheduled series but something more erratic, bound to unravel in fits and starts, free-wheeling to the very end. What matters is that deadline and writing about everything I see until then. To start things off, I decided to take a sample of each category…

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Remembering Deborah Kerr in "Edward, My Son"

by Cláudio Alves

This week, I was a guest on The Lone Acting Nominees podcast. Every episode, the show considers a different film whose only Oscar nomination was for one of the four acting categories, going over the individual performance, the picture overall, and the awards season they found themselves within. For my first appearance, Gordon McNulty and I talked about George Cukor's Edward, My Son, a stage-to-screen adaptation from 1949 that earned Deborah Kerr her first Academy Award nomination. Of course, as we all know, she lost to Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress in what was to be one of six defeats in the race for gold. Not that Kerr's record-setting losses are widely mourned. She was never recognized for her best and riskier works, her Oscar sextet making for a terrible introduction to her talent. Still, you have to admire Kerr's big swings in Edward, My Son…

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Almost There: Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Eve"

by Cláudio Alves

Since its inception, the Academy has shown a certain reluctance to awarding great acting within the comedy genre. It often feels that the sillier the role, the less likely it is to win plaudits for the performer who fleshes it out on screen. That's not to say that comedy is wholly absent from the acting races – it's just rarer, more prone to reductive judgment and dismissal. Considering all this, the recent SAG results feel even more miraculous. They point us toward a scenario where a wild genre riff might win over half of the acting prizes. So with that mind, a comedic episode of "Almost There".

Let's reflect upon an achievement that might be justly named the pinnacle of screen comedy – Barbara Stanwyck's stunning turn in 1941's The Lady Eve…

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