The Best Actress Race: Nomination Tracks & Frankenstein Fusion

by Nathaniel R

I should probably switch this up as I've been doing it annually, but I can't resist. I love imagining a Frankenstein-fusion of the parts of all the  BEST ACTRESS nominees.  If you smoosh or stitch Renate, Kate, Emma, Jessie, and Rose together our Best Actress Category Avatar is a mid-career still-ascending brunette star on her second nomination. She's also dabbled in musicals, played Sally Bowles in "Cabaret", and BAFTA recognized her genius before Oscar voters did!  Maybe she has false memories of winning an Oscar but this is only her second nomination. Her director has a proven track record with guiding actresses -- she may have even worked with them before -- to stellar performances. She's a fire sign with earth rising, a wife, a mother of two, and she just turned 40.

The movie she's nominated for is a drama about a young grieving mother struggling to balance her artistic career ambitions, with her obnoxious needy child--- wait, is she Alice from Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore?. No uh, never mind, the movie is weirder than that. There's a darkly comic subplot about incels and mysterious holes in her ceiling but the main thrust of the narrative is that the most important man in her life (was it her dad or husband? I forget) is perpetually absent, consummed by his own artistic career ambitions, and has no time for her needs! 

See the updated Best Actress chart 
The chart includes a daily poll, "How'd They Get Nominated?" speculation (not meant as judgment -- nobody is nominated on performance alone!), stats, anecdotes, and trivia. 

It’s Autumn Season for Best Cinematography

By Juan Carlos Ojano

Ryan Coogler and Autum Durald Arkapaw while filming SINNERS. (Courtesy: Eli Adé)

After 98 years, history might just be made in Best Cinematography. Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the cinematographer of SINNERS, is the current frontrunner for Best Cinematography, the last non-gendered Oscar category yet to have a female winner. Born of African-American and Filipino descent, Arkapaw has worked for more than a decade. Her resume includes Palo Alto, Teen Spirit, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and The Last Showgirl. In Sinners, Arkapaw already made history for being the first female cinematographer to have shot a film on large format IMAX film.

The history of women nominated for this category has unfortunately been short and recent. The list includes...

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