Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

The five women nominated for Best Actress. Who takes home the statue?



Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

I thought Viola Davis was more of a supporting role - despite her character's name being in the title.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

Davis was good and Kirby was excellent.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

Big snub for Rosemund Pike. I Care A Lot was a flawed film, but her performance was just great.

I'm gonna say Viola wins this one, even though I didn't really care for her performance or that movie in general.

I've seen four of the five nominees and I would LOVE to see this award go to Carey Mulligan...she was absolutely extraordinary. I also have to admit surprise at Rosamond Pike not being nominated. I have not seen Pieces of a Woman.

Just watched Pieces of a Woman so I have now seen all five best actress nominees...this a bear of a category but i think I still have to go with Carey Mulligan on this one.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

This is a tough one to call. I was really impressed with Andra Day. But McDormand is clearly up front for me. I will watch Pieces of a Woman tomorrow and then cast my vote.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

Finished Pieces of a Woman. That was some good acting! I still voted McDormand. But to be honest Day, Kirby, Davis all can win it.

You don't think McDormand already having two Oscars is going to work against her?

Frances McDormand's win for Nomadland puts her in rare company. It is her third win as Best Actress following Fargo and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. She is only the seventh performer to win three Academy Awards for acting. Walter Brennan (Come and Get It, Kentucky, The Westerner), Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Terms of Endearment, As Good as It Gets), and Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln) are the three men who have accomplished this feat while Frances joins Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight, Anastasia, Murder on the Orient Express) and Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady) with three a piece while the immortal Katharine Hepburn is the only thespian to win four, all as Best Actress (Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, On Golden Pond).

McDormand and Day-Lewis are the most efficient on the list with three wins in six nominations each. Meryl Streep is already the most nominated actor ever with twenty-one nods, thus far. But that only gives her a 14% success rate. Hepburn won her four in twelve total nominations.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

My favorite thing was how quick her speech was. In the chat my theory was she already did the wolf howl thing for Best Picture, not expecting to win Best Actress.

Anyway, wow, three Best Actress Oscars is nuts.

Or not expecting Best Picture to be called before Best Actress.

The show only ran fifteen minutes late. Not sure how with such a streamlined show they still went over? They even did all of the nominated song performances on tape during the ABC pre-show. The bit with music trivia and Glenn Close doin' Da Butt was funny enough, but in a ceremony that had no other asides or even a traditional monologue it was very odd and totally unnecessary. Whatevs. If Frances had given a two and a half or three minute speech instead of twenty seconds and Hopkins had been either there or via satellite to accept it could have easily gone towards thirty minutes long.

The mystery of how that show always goes long no matter what is like the Bermuda Triangle of broadcasting.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

Well, they did have two different humanitarian awards, and a lot of people just messing around, I guess. The speeches were also quite long, they didn't seem to rush or play anyone off at all.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

I was surprised Carey Mulligan didn't win. I didn't see all the nominated performances, but I did see McDormand's, and I think she's given a variation of that type of performance playing different characters before in other awarded roles. Carey Mulligan, by contrast, really made that movie what it was. Without her performance, the movie wouldn't have connected as well as it did. Her performance was the best thing about the movie by far. If you had a weaker actress in the role, I don't think the movie would have gotten the acclaim that it did.

Re: Oscar's Best Actress 2021
 

Gotta agree. Mulligan's was simply more integral to the film and was a bigger part of why it worked.

I agree with you about McDormand. Her's was a walk-through outing that was fine, but nothing special. Compare this ordinary performance with her portrayal in Fargo, for example. The former was mediocre, the latter brilliant.