Best Supporting Actress
The supporting race is always at the same time, the most easiest and hardest race to predict. Most of the time they usually go for the flashy perfs, the type of perf that steals the film (Catherine Zeta Jones in 2002’s Chicago, Amy Adams in 2005’s Junebug, Cate Blanchett in 2004’s The Aviator), the long suffering wife roles, (Jennifer Connolly in 2001’s A Beautiful Mind, Julianne Moore in 2002’s The Hours, Marcia Gay Harden in 2000’s Pollock). It is a category where there’s the usual co stars go head to head ( Babel, Chicago, Gosford Park, Almost Famous, Bullets Over Broadway, The Color Purple, all got double nominations in this category), where the young rising stars get in (Jennifer Hudson, Rinko Kinkuchi, Kate Hudson, Amy Adams, Anna Paquin) as do the old (Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Gloria Stuart). But it is often difficult picking the right players half or a full year in advance.
Looking back at the past six months, the best supporting actress is the slowest to unfold. The strongest female supporting performance of the year is without a doubt Leslie Mann, who plays the desperate but hopeful housewife to the also desperate Paul Rudd, in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up. I strongly doubt Mann or the film itself will find much success, its clearly too raunchy for the Academy’s taste, thow last year’s screenplay nom for Borat might just open the door for Knocked Up if it stays as fresh as its at this stage in the race).
Meryl Streep has an explicable track record, with over fourteen nominations, including 2 wins (Sophie’ Choice and Kramer vs. Kramer), she’s currently renowned as the greatest living actress. The actress appears in four qualifying films, two of which, she’s getting major buzz. She co-stars with Robert Redford and Tom Cruise in Redford’s political Drama, Lions for Lambs, in which Streep plays a journalist caught in the whole afganistan debate. The other possible contender is another political drama, Rendition co starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard. Not sure yet if the role is going to qualify, yet we can never doubt Streep.
Jennifer Jason Leigh seems to be having a great career comeback this year. 20+ years of being overdue, is in her favour, adding to the fact that she has the film’s battiest role of the film. Directed by hubby Noah Baumback, Leigh is getting all of buzz, stealing scenes from once adored Nicole Kidman and terribly underated Jack Black. The trailer indicated to me that Leigh is the central emotional ark of the film (Kidman looks really stiff), which is always a strong advantage when it comes to supporting actresses.
Susan Sarandon, has gotten lucky with the academy in the past, with a win for Dead Man Walking and nominations for Atlantic City, Thelma Louise and The Client. She’s now well known one of the great actresses of the 90s, but hasn’t had that much luck in the race. With the exeption of critic awards for her role in 02’s Igby Goes Down, she been dead in the water. Films like Stepmom, Moonlight Mile, Twilight and Elizabethtown, al stired buzz months before opening, but was found dead upon arrival. Which is why I’m sceptical with her performance in, In The Valley of Elah, throw it is a bait role. Directed by Crash helmer Paul Haggis, the film is one of the many fall films dealing with the Iraq war, this one details the on going search of Det. Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) and Hank & Joan Deerfiled (Tommy Lee Jones & Sarandon) looking for their AWOL soldier sun (Jonathan Tucker). I told you it was bait, but its been a very long time since her last nomination.
Romola Garai, is the leading hot young talented actress, of those vying for a spot in this category. Garai is one of the three actresses who play the role of Brirony Tallis, who after observing the affair between her sister (Kiera Knightly) with a servant’s son (James McAvory); accuses him of a crime of which he did not commit, which sets off a epic love story that prolongs threw WW1. While much of the confrontation with McAvory’s character happens when played by younger actress Saoirse Ronan, there’s been a lot of buzz for Garai. She seems to have more screentime and more potent material, then Ronan. Both will have a strong chance this season, Brirony Tallis is one of the fullest characters of the novel, she’s also the central supporting character in the scenario, she’s the cause of all things. There are many young actresses trying to join the big leagues, including the following. Aussie Native Abbie Cornish, while getting many raves and accolades for her roles in indie aussie fare like Summersault and Candy, is blooming into a a young exotic film star (even talk of her being the new Bond Girl). She’s starring alongside Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen, playing the third party between Owen’s Walter Raleigh and Blanchette’s Queen Elizabeth love affair, which has for backdrop, break of the war between England and Spain. Emily Blunt, who after starring apposite Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, has been the it girl in Hollywood. She’s starring in four films this year, most importantly in Mike Nichol’s Charlie Wilson’s War, alongside another hot young star and a 2005 Oscar nominee, Amy Adams. While I’ve recently been told that Blunt has a small cameo role, it really looks the later will have the upper straw, but that’s speculation at best, we have no indication if Adams has a substantial role that qualifies for the Oscars. She’s also getting competition from another co-star, America’s Sweetheart and Oscar Champ Julia Roberts, who’se career fizzled since her Erin Brochovich win (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Mona Lisa’s Smile, please??), but who knows, maybe this will be her and Hanks comeback roles, Mike Nichols did direct her in her best post Brochovich performance.
Talking about comebacks, Mira Sorvino, the one time wonder, who surprisingly burst on the scene back in 95 for her performance as a prostitute mother, whose son happens to be a genius. She took home the Best Supporting Oscar, just beating out Joan Allen as First Lady Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone’s Nixon and Kate Winslet as Marianna Dashwood in Ang Lee’s Jane Austin, who at the time was head to head. Ever since the Oscar, her career has fizzled, with the exception of her role in the cult hit, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, the 90’s coming of age ensemble flick Beautiful Girls and Tim Blake Nelson’s Holocaust film The Grey Zone. Hoping to do what Marisa Tomey did in 2001, Sorvino is doing a comeback of sorts in Terry Geiorge’s Reservation, a gritty drama, in which Sorvino plays the wife to Mark Ruffalo’s Dwight, who is responsible for the death of the son of Ethan and Grace (Joaquin Pheonix and Jennifer Connelly). The academy loves the long suffering wife role.
British actress, Helena Bonham Carter, has had a very interesting and quirky career, that has gotten not only fans but also frequent praise from the critics. With a previous nomination as a high class English women who must break off ties with her one true love to keep her high class status in The Wings of a Dove, a handful of Fanboy loved roles (Fight Club, Planet of the Apes) and a small (but potent) role in the Summer Blockbuster Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, she has the right foot forward towards the Oscar Race. Carter plays Mrs. Lovett, who owns the Meat Pie shop downstairs to Sweeney Todd’s Barberry, in the film Sweeney Todd: The Deemon Barber of Fleet Street. Lovett has a lot of bait scenes in the first act of the film, and this is the source character that earned Angela Lansbury a Tony and Beth Fowler and Patti Lupone noms.
Back in 2003, Evan Rachel Wood had one of the biggest breakouts of any other young star in recent memory. The actress got (undeserved) universal praise and attention as Tracie Louise Freeland, a good girl gone terrible as she meet her new high school peers. At the age of 15, the actress got serious oscar traction, including SAG and Golden Globe nominations, not a small task for a complete newcomer; the same year she co-starred with acting vets Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett in the highly anticipated, but highly disappointing The Missing, which did not even make a dent on the oscar race. Now she has another bait role as the younger Diana (Uma Thurman plays the older Diana), who in her youth was present at a high school shooting much like the 1999 Columbine shooting. I’m not sure who will have who has the baitiest scenes, Wood present at the shooting; or Thurman weeping in her guilt, but either way it looks that both actresses are going to gain attention for this piece.
Now ladies and gents, these are some of our contenders for best supporting actresses, now here are the rankings: (PS. I forgot to mention Rudy Dee in American Gangster and Kelly Macdonald in No Country for Old Men. Dee seems to be the veteran who gets a nomination in recognition for her longing career; while Macdonald might rode the coattails of No Country of Old Men)
Predicted Nominees
1. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Margot + The Wedding
2. Romola Garai, Atonement
3. Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd
4. Abbie Cornish A Golden Age
5. Mira Sorvino, Reservation Road
Runner Ups
6. Kelly Macdonald, No Country for Old Men
7. Samantha Morton, A Golden Age
8. Evan Rachel Wood, In Bloom
9. Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson’s War
10. Amy Adams, Charlie Wilson’s War
Also Contending
11. Susan Sarandon, In the Valley of Elah
12. Cate Blanchett, I’m Not Here
13. Meryl Streep, Lions for Lambs (& Rendition)
14. Saorise Ronan, Atonement
15. Rudy Dee, American Gangster
Don’t Count Them Out
16. Kristen Scott Thomas, The Other Boleyn Girl
17. Natalie Portman, The Other Boleyn Girl
18. Venessa Redgrave, Atonement
19. Toni Collette, Nothing Is Private
20. Twilda Swinton, Micheal Clayton
Vote Siphoners
21. Nicole Kidman, His Dark Materials:
22. Kiera Knightly, Silk
23. Marisa Thomey, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
24. Mary Louise Parker, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
25. Natalie Portman, My Blueberry Nights
The supporting race is always at the same time, the most easiest and hardest race to predict. Most of the time they usually go for the flashy perfs, the type of perf that steals the film (Catherine Zeta Jones in 2002’s Chicago, Amy Adams in 2005’s Junebug, Cate Blanchett in 2004’s The Aviator), the long suffering wife roles, (Jennifer Connolly in 2001’s A Beautiful Mind, Julianne Moore in 2002’s The Hours, Marcia Gay Harden in 2000’s Pollock). It is a category where there’s the usual co stars go head to head ( Babel, Chicago, Gosford Park, Almost Famous, Bullets Over Broadway, The Color Purple, all got double nominations in this category), where the young rising stars get in (Jennifer Hudson, Rinko Kinkuchi, Kate Hudson, Amy Adams, Anna Paquin) as do the old (Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Gloria Stuart). But it is often difficult picking the right players half or a full year in advance.
Looking back at the past six months, the best supporting actress is the slowest to unfold. The strongest female supporting performance of the year is without a doubt Leslie Mann, who plays the desperate but hopeful housewife to the also desperate Paul Rudd, in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up. I strongly doubt Mann or the film itself will find much success, its clearly too raunchy for the Academy’s taste, thow last year’s screenplay nom for Borat might just open the door for Knocked Up if it stays as fresh as its at this stage in the race).
Meryl Streep has an explicable track record, with over fourteen nominations, including 2 wins (Sophie’ Choice and Kramer vs. Kramer), she’s currently renowned as the greatest living actress. The actress appears in four qualifying films, two of which, she’s getting major buzz. She co-stars with Robert Redford and Tom Cruise in Redford’s political Drama, Lions for Lambs, in which Streep plays a journalist caught in the whole afganistan debate. The other possible contender is another political drama, Rendition co starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard. Not sure yet if the role is going to qualify, yet we can never doubt Streep.
Jennifer Jason Leigh seems to be having a great career comeback this year. 20+ years of being overdue, is in her favour, adding to the fact that she has the film’s battiest role of the film. Directed by hubby Noah Baumback, Leigh is getting all of buzz, stealing scenes from once adored Nicole Kidman and terribly underated Jack Black. The trailer indicated to me that Leigh is the central emotional ark of the film (Kidman looks really stiff), which is always a strong advantage when it comes to supporting actresses.
Susan Sarandon, has gotten lucky with the academy in the past, with a win for Dead Man Walking and nominations for Atlantic City, Thelma Louise and The Client. She’s now well known one of the great actresses of the 90s, but hasn’t had that much luck in the race. With the exeption of critic awards for her role in 02’s Igby Goes Down, she been dead in the water. Films like Stepmom, Moonlight Mile, Twilight and Elizabethtown, al stired buzz months before opening, but was found dead upon arrival. Which is why I’m sceptical with her performance in, In The Valley of Elah, throw it is a bait role. Directed by Crash helmer Paul Haggis, the film is one of the many fall films dealing with the Iraq war, this one details the on going search of Det. Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) and Hank & Joan Deerfiled (Tommy Lee Jones & Sarandon) looking for their AWOL soldier sun (Jonathan Tucker). I told you it was bait, but its been a very long time since her last nomination.
Romola Garai, is the leading hot young talented actress, of those vying for a spot in this category. Garai is one of the three actresses who play the role of Brirony Tallis, who after observing the affair between her sister (Kiera Knightly) with a servant’s son (James McAvory); accuses him of a crime of which he did not commit, which sets off a epic love story that prolongs threw WW1. While much of the confrontation with McAvory’s character happens when played by younger actress Saoirse Ronan, there’s been a lot of buzz for Garai. She seems to have more screentime and more potent material, then Ronan. Both will have a strong chance this season, Brirony Tallis is one of the fullest characters of the novel, she’s also the central supporting character in the scenario, she’s the cause of all things. There are many young actresses trying to join the big leagues, including the following. Aussie Native Abbie Cornish, while getting many raves and accolades for her roles in indie aussie fare like Summersault and Candy, is blooming into a a young exotic film star (even talk of her being the new Bond Girl). She’s starring alongside Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen, playing the third party between Owen’s Walter Raleigh and Blanchette’s Queen Elizabeth love affair, which has for backdrop, break of the war between England and Spain. Emily Blunt, who after starring apposite Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, has been the it girl in Hollywood. She’s starring in four films this year, most importantly in Mike Nichol’s Charlie Wilson’s War, alongside another hot young star and a 2005 Oscar nominee, Amy Adams. While I’ve recently been told that Blunt has a small cameo role, it really looks the later will have the upper straw, but that’s speculation at best, we have no indication if Adams has a substantial role that qualifies for the Oscars. She’s also getting competition from another co-star, America’s Sweetheart and Oscar Champ Julia Roberts, who’se career fizzled since her Erin Brochovich win (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Mona Lisa’s Smile, please??), but who knows, maybe this will be her and Hanks comeback roles, Mike Nichols did direct her in her best post Brochovich performance.
Talking about comebacks, Mira Sorvino, the one time wonder, who surprisingly burst on the scene back in 95 for her performance as a prostitute mother, whose son happens to be a genius. She took home the Best Supporting Oscar, just beating out Joan Allen as First Lady Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone’s Nixon and Kate Winslet as Marianna Dashwood in Ang Lee’s Jane Austin, who at the time was head to head. Ever since the Oscar, her career has fizzled, with the exception of her role in the cult hit, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, the 90’s coming of age ensemble flick Beautiful Girls and Tim Blake Nelson’s Holocaust film The Grey Zone. Hoping to do what Marisa Tomey did in 2001, Sorvino is doing a comeback of sorts in Terry Geiorge’s Reservation, a gritty drama, in which Sorvino plays the wife to Mark Ruffalo’s Dwight, who is responsible for the death of the son of Ethan and Grace (Joaquin Pheonix and Jennifer Connelly). The academy loves the long suffering wife role.
British actress, Helena Bonham Carter, has had a very interesting and quirky career, that has gotten not only fans but also frequent praise from the critics. With a previous nomination as a high class English women who must break off ties with her one true love to keep her high class status in The Wings of a Dove, a handful of Fanboy loved roles (Fight Club, Planet of the Apes) and a small (but potent) role in the Summer Blockbuster Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, she has the right foot forward towards the Oscar Race. Carter plays Mrs. Lovett, who owns the Meat Pie shop downstairs to Sweeney Todd’s Barberry, in the film Sweeney Todd: The Deemon Barber of Fleet Street. Lovett has a lot of bait scenes in the first act of the film, and this is the source character that earned Angela Lansbury a Tony and Beth Fowler and Patti Lupone noms.
Back in 2003, Evan Rachel Wood had one of the biggest breakouts of any other young star in recent memory. The actress got (undeserved) universal praise and attention as Tracie Louise Freeland, a good girl gone terrible as she meet her new high school peers. At the age of 15, the actress got serious oscar traction, including SAG and Golden Globe nominations, not a small task for a complete newcomer; the same year she co-starred with acting vets Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett in the highly anticipated, but highly disappointing The Missing, which did not even make a dent on the oscar race. Now she has another bait role as the younger Diana (Uma Thurman plays the older Diana), who in her youth was present at a high school shooting much like the 1999 Columbine shooting. I’m not sure who will have who has the baitiest scenes, Wood present at the shooting; or Thurman weeping in her guilt, but either way it looks that both actresses are going to gain attention for this piece.
Now ladies and gents, these are some of our contenders for best supporting actresses, now here are the rankings: (PS. I forgot to mention Rudy Dee in American Gangster and Kelly Macdonald in No Country for Old Men. Dee seems to be the veteran who gets a nomination in recognition for her longing career; while Macdonald might rode the coattails of No Country of Old Men)
Predicted Nominees
1. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Margot + The Wedding
2. Romola Garai, Atonement
3. Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd
4. Abbie Cornish A Golden Age
5. Mira Sorvino, Reservation Road
Runner Ups
6. Kelly Macdonald, No Country for Old Men
7. Samantha Morton, A Golden Age
8. Evan Rachel Wood, In Bloom
9. Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson’s War
10. Amy Adams, Charlie Wilson’s War
Also Contending
11. Susan Sarandon, In the Valley of Elah
12. Cate Blanchett, I’m Not Here
13. Meryl Streep, Lions for Lambs (& Rendition)
14. Saorise Ronan, Atonement
15. Rudy Dee, American Gangster
Don’t Count Them Out
16. Kristen Scott Thomas, The Other Boleyn Girl
17. Natalie Portman, The Other Boleyn Girl
18. Venessa Redgrave, Atonement
19. Toni Collette, Nothing Is Private
20. Twilda Swinton, Micheal Clayton
Vote Siphoners
21. Nicole Kidman, His Dark Materials:
22. Kiera Knightly, Silk
23. Marisa Thomey, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
24. Mary Louise Parker, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
25. Natalie Portman, My Blueberry Nights
posted by Pat Gratton at 7:11 PM
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