This category features three previous Oscar winners but I suspect the Academy is going for new blood this time.
Nicole Kidman's nod for
Being the Ricardos is her fifth acting nomination. Three of the previous four were as Best Actress:
Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, and
Rabbit Hole. Her other nom was for
Lion in the Supporting category. She won as Virginia Woolf in
The Hours. Her performance as Lucille Ball is the best thing about this movie. Had she not won before I'd say the sentiment to get her an Oscar coupled with the good performance would make her the favorite. But this is a case where I think already having an Oscar at home lessens her chances of getting another.
If you weren’t a fan of 2000s British television
Olivia Colman may have seemed to have come out of nowhere. She now has three Oscar nominations in the past four years! Last year it was for
The Father and she won Best Actress for her pitiful Queen Anne in
The Favourite. She is very strong in
The Lost Daughter, as always, but having “just” won recently I don’t suspect it is the kind of work that will net her a second already. Though clearly the Academy has noticed her and adores her. She will no doubt be nominated again in the future and have other chances to double up on Oscar. As a trivia note, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley are both nominated for playing the same character in the same movie at different ages. This has happened before when Judi Dench and Kate Winslet both received nominations for playing
Iris Murdoch. Neither won, Dench as Best Actress and Winslet in Supporting.
Penélope Cruz is also a former winner and
Parallel Mothers is her fourth nomination, her second as the lead in an Almodóvar film following
Volver, which was the year Helen Mirren won as
The Queen. Her other pair of noms came in Supporting Actress for Rob Marshall’s
Nine and Woody Allen’s
Vicky Christina Barcelona. She won her Oscar for Woody’s flick. As one of Pedro Almodóvar’s muses it would be fitting for her to win for one of his movies. And she may…some day. But it won’t be for
Parallel Mothers. Of course she is terrific, but as another handicap only two women have ever won Best Actress for performances in non-English speaking roles. The first was Sophia Loren for
Two Women and the second Maron Cotillard for
La Vie en Rose. Cruz probably won’t join them this year.
In a year with former Oscar winners on the ballot sometimes they vote for somebody who hasn’t gotten one yet. If that is the case it is coming down to Chastain or Stewart.
Kristen Stewart is enjoying her first Oscar nomination for playing Princess Diana in
Spencer. Stewart will turn thirty-two in April but has already been in front of cameras for over twenty years. Her first big role was opposite Jodie Foster in Fincher’s
Panic Room when she was only twelve. Of course she became über-famous when she was cast as Bella Swan in the
Twilight series. She was hunted by paparazzi and hopefully cashed some fat checks, but while that phenomenon was unfolding she was also trying to establish herself in more serious fare like
Adventureland and playing Joan Jett in
The Runaways. That
Twilight image is hard to shake, but as she headed towards thirty she started getting good to great notices and arthouse cred for her work with Olivier Assayas in
The Clouds of Sils Maria and
Personal Shopper and for playing Jean
Seberg. That biopic was not very good, but Pablo Larraín’s
Spencer is a much better showcase. It is a similar expressionistic style and filmmaking approach that got Natalie Portman her nomination for playing
Jackie Kennedy (when Emma Stone won for
La La Land).
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is already Jessica Chastain’s third Oscar nom, following a Supporting Actress nod for
The Help (her co-star Octavia Spencer won) and a previous Best Actress for
Zero Dark Thirty (Jennifer Lawrence’s year for
Silver Linings Playbook). On a technical level Chastain’s physical transformation into the infamous televangelist is pretty gosh darn remarkable. Then the emotional journey the character goes on from wide-eyed innocent to the heavily made-up TV star to the excess and becoming embroiled in her husband’s schemes to finding redemption on the other side is an actor’s dream.
This is
Spencer’s only Oscar nomination and the only other category
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is competing in is for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling. While it may seem counterintuitive, not having a mountain of complementary nominations is not necessarily a hinderance, especially in this category. Just in this century winners for Best Actress as the only or only major nomination for the film include Renée Zellweger for
Judy, Julianne Moore for
Still Alice, Meryl Streep for
The Iron Lady, Sandra Bullock for
The Blind Side, Marion Cotillard for
La Vie en Rose, and Charlize Theron for
Monster. I am betting either Stewart or Chastain will join their ranks.
As for which one, I think it’s gotta be Chastain. It’s a more flamboyant role, the Academy clearly likes Jessica, and when it comes right down to it all things being equal, sometimes they pick the person who in real life and in a televised acceptance speech is more likeable and vibrant. That is Chastain, all over. Monosyllabic mumbling through interviews and not wanting your picture taken is absolutely fine for an artist but sometimes it hurts you when you're competing for awards and working the media and Oscar luncheon circuit.
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