93rd Oscars: Best Actress

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flipp525
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by flipp525 »

Sabin wrote:Those Anonymous Oscar ballots were really worth paying attention to this year.
That’s what ultimately led me to choose Hopkins in my predictions for the contest. Not a single one of those anonymous Oscar voters had chosen Boseman. It wasn’t going to happen. It’s actually the thing I was most sure about the night.
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Reza
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by Reza »

Sabin wrote:I realize I'm in the minority here on this board but it's not like Anthony Hopkins is miles better than Chadwick Boseman. They're both very good.
I agree both performances are good. But Boseman was basically channelling so many other angry black actors venting their rage which we've seen before in countless movies in the past - Sidney Poitier alone has done about 10 such roles. There was nothing "fresh" or new about this performance.

Hopkins, on the other hand, gives an understated yet devastating performance which is in complete contrast to his other performances. Compare him to Emmanuelle Riva in Amour. Both playing characters with dementia. So different to her yet equally moving.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by Okri »

Sabin wrote:
Reza wrote
With a slight change in phrasing what you just said about McDormand also applies to Hopkins' "less showy" performance and his eventual win for "The Father". Clearly the Academy chose the best performance of the five actors nominated. Boseman's perceived win was purely based on sentiment. I think even if he had not died the winner would have been Hopkins - a British national treasure.
I realize I'm in the minority here on this board but it's not like Anthony Hopkins is miles better than Chadwick Boseman. They're both very good. I also don't think that Anthony Hopkins' win had nothing to do with sentiment considering, y'know, his age and performance. I think the lesson here is that Best Actor tends to correlate very strongly with Best Picture. They clearly liked The Father more than Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. And if you like The Father, you like Anthony Hopkins.

A few weeks ago, I said I didn't think it was appropriate to compare Chadwick Boseman's Oscar chances in Ma Rainey to that of Glenn Close and The Wife. I was wrong. It's entirely appropriate. Enough people just assumed that Chadwick Boseman would win anyway so they could vote from their heart. Those Anonymous Oscar ballots were really worth paying attention to this year.
100% agreed.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by Sabin »

Reza wrote
With a slight change in phrasing what you just said about McDormand also applies to Hopkins' "less showy" performance and his eventual win for "The Father". Clearly the Academy chose the best performance of the five actors nominated. Boseman's perceived win was purely based on sentiment. I think even if he had not died the winner would have been Hopkins - a British national treasure.
I realize I'm in the minority here on this board but it's not like Anthony Hopkins is miles better than Chadwick Boseman. They're both very good. I also don't think that Anthony Hopkins' win had nothing to do with sentiment considering, y'know, his age and performance. I think the lesson here is that Best Actor tends to correlate very strongly with Best Picture. They clearly liked The Father more than Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. And if you like The Father, you like Anthony Hopkins.

A few weeks ago, I said I didn't think it was appropriate to compare Chadwick Boseman's Oscar chances in Ma Rainey to that of Glenn Close and The Wife. I was wrong. It's entirely appropriate. Enough people just assumed that Chadwick Boseman would win anyway so they could vote from their heart. Those Anonymous Oscar ballots were really worth paying attention to this year.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by mlrg »

dreaMaker wrote:I really like Frances but three Oscars for almost the same role like wtf
I’m eager to know the similarities between the three characters. Can you elaborate?

In 1996 I would have voted for Emily Watson. In 2017 I agreed with the Academy. I would have voted for Carey Mulligan this year.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

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HarryGoldfarb wrote: But I clearly remember that when I saw Nomadland I kept thinking "if only McDormand hadn't won so recently ...". Not only did I love the movie, but her performance affected me deeply. I don't think it is a "variation" of what she has already offered us, it's just that she was the right actress for this specific role, she was capable of delivering this delicate and very humane work. That her role is less "showy" was another factor to not consider her as an eventual winner, but I'm glad the Academy had the good, though unexpected, sense to award this performance (let's forget their previous awards for a moment). I believe McDormand should be a national treasure for Americans, and it is disheartening to note that many feel she have received "too much." I think she along with Katherine Keener and Laura Linney are some of the most interesting American actresses of the last decades.
With a slight change in phrasing what you just said about McDormand also applies to Hopkins' "less showy" performance and his eventual win for "The Father". Clearly the Academy chose the best performance of the five actors nominated. Boseman's perceived win was purely based on sentiment. I think even if he had not died the winner would have been Hopkins - a British national treasure. Surprisingly the Academy's choice with both lead actor wins hit the bullseye and for a change were on merit. And its quite remarkable considering the pressure they were in to do the "right thing". Or at least we, the general public", thought they should have gone down that route.

As someone said the person least concerned with Hopkins' win is Chadwick Boseman.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by Okri »

It's interesting.

I'm on Big Magilla's side inasmuch as I think 1996, 2017 and 2020 were really strong categories. For one person to win all three suggests the type of towering, inarguable performance that I just don't think was given in any of them. But I think her achievement this year is actually her best achievement of her nominated performances. I wouldn't have voted for her in 1996 (Emily Watson is my favourite) nor even nominated her in 2017, so those wins rankle a little more now she's gotten a third oscar. And I'm not even ashamed to say that yeah, in real time, it would affect how I voted. The fact is when discussing art and performances, I'd argue that three quarters of the time, I like more than one a lot anyway. It's rare that one performance/achievement towers over the field

Harry, it's worth pointing out that if you use our contests/threads for this discussion...

Bergman: Loses in 1944 to Stanwyck, wins in 1956, loses in 1974 to Cortese, wins in 1978 (she also loses her other two nominations)
Nichsolon: Wins in 1973 (huh), loses in 1975 (huh), wins in 1983, loses in 1997 (by one vote)
Streep: Wins all three.
Day Lewis: Wins all three, but ties with Phoenix in 2012.
HarryGoldfarb
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by HarryGoldfarb »

I ended up dismissing the possibility that McDormand could win due not only to his recent award, but to the politics of the current times. And now that I think about it, it's a shame we have started to think like that. Predicting who wins is an interesting exercise insofar as it allows us to glimpse the thinking of the voters, but we end up putting aside what really matters: the performances.

I believed that someone of color was going to win, especially in these years that we are living in (particularly heavier for North American society). My prediction was Day, not only because of her Golden Globe, but because, as someone has already established, it was she who offered "the most performance." **MINOR SPOILER AHEAD** Her role was juicy, with a little bit of everything: humor, drama of the heaviest kind, sex scenes, drug use, physical deterioration, personification of a widely known icon ... but not having the Davis track carreer, I had doubts. Davis is the best of her film, it seems to me that she fills the screen when she is on stage, but her role is very small and she is missing in much of the film. But if Boseman was poised to win, then I thought it would be fair to let her have the award. Not that I wanted that scenario but it seemed kind of fair.

But I clearly remember that when I saw Nomadland I kept thinking "if only McDormand hadn't won so recently ...". Not only did I love the movie, but her performance affected me deeply. I don't think it is a "variation" of what she has already offered us, it's just that she was the right actress for this specific role, she was capable of delivering this delicate and very humane work. That her role is less "showy" was another factor to not consider her as an eventual winner, but I'm glad the Academy had the good, though unexpected, sense to award this performance (let's forget her previous awards for a moment). I believe McDormand should be a national treasure for Americans, and it is disheartening to note that many feel she has received "too much." I think she along with Katherine Keener and Laura Linney are some of the most interesting American actresses of the last decades.

And regarding winning a (third) Oscar only when you are clearly head and shoulders above the competition, well... I don't know. I wonder if there is consensus on Streep's performance in The Iron Lady being the best of her group. Or for that matter, was Bergman head and shoulders superior to Valentina Cortese? Nicholson won over a supposedly superior, for many, Peter Fonda. Perhaps the only one who has won three awards without discussion is Day Lewis, and still I am sure you can find some naysayers about at least one of his awards.
Last edited by HarryGoldfarb on Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by FilmFan720 »

dreaMaker wrote:I really like Frances but three Oscars for almost the same role like wtf
Please explain how Fern and Marge Gunderson are in anyways similar?
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by Big Magilla »

I wouldn't say it bothers me, and I wouldn't have an objection at all if she were clearly so much better than the competition, but she wasn't. To me it's like the same actors and actresses winning for the same TV roles year after after year with no one having a chance unless their show goes off the air or as was the case with Candice Bergen, refusing to compete after she'd won five Emmys out of seven nominations for playing Murphy Brown.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by taki15 »

Big Magilla wrote:McDormand is a good actress and her performance in Nomadland is a good one, but so were the others in her category. Had she lost the 1996 Oscar to Emily Watson or Brenda Blethyn or Debbie Reynolds or anybody else there would be no controversy in her winning again so soon after her last one for Three Billboards but that performance was not so far and above everyone else's that it deserved to make her only the second actress to win three Oscars for lead roles. She and her husband have a combined 8 Oscars, 4 each. Nice, but why?
Why not?
As I said, personally I wouldn't have given her three Oscars too but it's not something that bothers me. I'm far more miffed with Gwyneth Paltrow and Helen Hunt having won a single Oscar than McDormand and her husband having won 8.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by Big Magilla »

McDormand is a good actress and her performance in Nomadland is a good one, but so were the others in her category. Had she lost the 1996 Oscar to Emily Watson or Brenda Blethyn or Debbie Reynolds or anybody else there would be no controversy in her winning again so soon after her last one for Three Billboards but that performance was not so far and above everyone else's that it deserved to make her only the second actress to win three Oscars for lead roles. She and her husband have a combined 8 Oscars, 4 each. Nice, but why?
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by taki15 »

OscarGuy wrote:Spared Viola Davis, but three Oscars for Frances McDormand is rather sad.
Why? It's not McDormand's problem if she was the best the years she won (and that's from someone who would have probably voted for Watson in 1996).
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by Big Magilla »

So, her BAFTA win wasn't a placeholder for Carey Mulligan after all.

I had a moment when Nomadland lost cinematography where I thought this could be a Godfather moment like when the expected winner of 1972 looked like it might lose but rallied in the end to win Best Picture with two other awards, one of them being a lead performance. But, then, I thought, nah, it's not happening. I don't understand why it did.
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Re: 93rd Oscars: Best Actress

Post by dreaMaker »

I really like Frances but three Oscars for almost the same role like wtf
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