Big Magilla wrote
Whatever weaknesses there were in the Academy Awards race of 2000, Best Actress wasn't one of them with contenders as varied as Renee Zellweger for Nurse Betty, Bjork for Dancer in the Dark, Michelle Yeoh for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I don't see why Zhang Ziyi wouldn't be lead as well), and Gillian Anderson for The House of Mirth who all could've respectably filled out any Best Actress lineup. Marcia Gay Harden would deserve to be among them but the Best Actress race that year was pretty locked in early on. Roberts steamrolled to victory with two respectable contenders behind her (Burstyn, Linney) and two less serious ones (Allen, Binoche), all of whom picked up Globe and SAG nominations. I don't see who Harden might dislodge.
Well, the locked race became unlocked pretty quickly with the unexpected nominations of Allen and Weinstein pushed Binoche over Yeoh and Anderson as well as Zellweger.
I haven't seen Pollock in more than 20 years - hated Harris' performance, but I do recall liking Harden and Madigan to an extent. Kate WInslet in Quills took Harden's place in my lineup with Judi Dench winning for being the antithesis of the artificial sweetness in Chocolat, which would have been a more deserving win than the one they gave her for Shakespeare in Love over Lynn Redgrave in Gods and Monsters.
I don't remember enough about Shadow of the Vampire to make any pronouncement, but I think the others were all correctly placed.
I watched Pollock a few years back on one of the streaming services. Harden's is a substantial supporting role, which probably is what helped her win when voters actually watched the film, but she is ultimately The Wife in the way that Jennifer Connelly was the following year, and not in the way that Felicity Jones, who was rightfully campaigned as Lead, was in 2014, because that film that was much more focused on the marriage of the two characters than Pollock or A Beautiful Mind, which were both about two geniuses who happened to be married.
I see the argument for Del Toro as Lead and I do think he is one of the few Supporting winners who could've won in Lead, but I think that Traffic as an ensemble piece where everyone is Supporting is as valid an argument as anything.
Sabin wrote:
I don’t see any mention of Marcia Gay Harden as a lead but I vaguely recall some mention that her role was sizable enough in Pollock to be considered. She’s in Pollock for 37.06% of the screen-time which is nearly twice that of her competition. Like I’m reasonably sure everyone else on this board, it’s been more than two decades since I’ve seen or really thought about Pollock, but Harden is still probably firmly in supportive spouse territory and I don’t much recall the thrust of the film being her relationship with Harris, as was the axis of the Redmayne/Jones relationship in The Theory of Everything.
I vote to keep Harden in support but I barely remember this year so I'll defer to anyone with a stronger memory of the film.
She disappears for the entire closing section of the film, and I'd say anyone with such a profile is logically in support.
Big Magilla wrote
The quandary for Harden is whether she could have been nominated in lead. I think, given who the nominees in that category turned out to be, that she could well have been, but she would have had no chance of winning against Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich who was that year's sure thing.
I don't see her getting nominated. Whatever weaknesses there were in the Academy Awards race of 2000, Best Actress wasn't one of them with contenders as varied as Renee Zellweger for Nurse Betty, Bjork for Dancer in the Dark, Michelle Yeoh for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I don't see why Zhang Ziyi wouldn't be lead as well), and Gillian Anderson for The House of Mirth who all could've respectably filled out any Best Actress lineup. Marcia Gay Harden would deserve to be among them but the Best Actress race that year was pretty locked in early on. Roberts steamrolled to victory with two respectable contenders behind her (Burstyn, Linney) and two less serious ones (Allen, Binoche), all of whom picked up Globe and SAG nominations. I don't see who Harden might dislodge.
I agree with everything you said except for Marica Gay Harden. I think she was definitely a lead in Pollack in which she was billed over tht tile along with Ed Harris in the film's poster.
There was some grumbling at the time that her nomination in support was at the expense of Harris' real-life wife Amy Madigan who had a colorful supporting role as Peggy Guggenheim.
The quandary for Harden is whether she could have been nominated in lead. I think, given who the nominees in that category turned out to be, that she could well have been, but she would have had no chance of winning against Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich who was that year's sure thing.
Hard to work up much enthusiasm for this year’s offerings because it was such a comedown from 1999, 1998, 1997… None of my favorite films had much of a showing and in this year’s Best Picture roster is the closest I’ve ever come to no selection.
I remember a bit of speculation as to whether Ellen Burstyn would be pushed for lead or supporting at the time, largely because of her performance in The Yards that year but most seem to agree that she was a lead. I see that NYFCC listed her as a supporting contender — not even in tandem with The Yards. She’s in Requiem for a Dream for 35.41% of the screen-time. It’s been ages since I’ve seen the film but it’s hard for me to make the case that “everyone is supporting” in it. The A Story circles the den of druggies which centers Jared Leto. The B Story is the other, most unknowing side of addiction which centers Ellen Burstyn and it’s separate and prominent enough to warrant lead status. The only case I can think to call her supporting is to make the case that everyone in the film is supporting and I don’t think that feels entirely right.
I vote to keep her in lead.
I remember when Benicio Del Toro taking home the SAG Award for Best Actor led me to pick Ed Harris because, hey! Voters clearly weren’t enthusiastic about any of the choices so that must mean they want the person who wasn’t nominated. I was wrong but that kind of thinking was eventually vindicated when I stuck with Regina King eighteen years later. His SAG nomination for Best Actor was surprising although not entirely unprecedented. NYFCC listed him as runner-up for Best Actor while also giving it to him for Best Supporting Actor (presumably a couple hours later), but he also picked up citations from the Toronto International Film Festival and Toronto Film Critics Association. Maybe it’s a Toronto thing.
Anyway, Benicio Del Toro is in Traffic for 17.70% of the screen-time. We have no way of knowing the screen-time of other performers in the film but his screen-time is probably on the heavier side. His character has the clearest example of a protagonist’s want (that field) but it doesn’t feel right to label him a lead when it’s such a sprawling film. Although I do wonder if Del Toro crossed over to lead, maybe he would’ve managed to usurp Crowe.
I vote to keep Del Toro in support.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen Shadow of the Vampire. I remember liking it fine as well as DaFoe’s performance, but my recollection is that if a case could be made that anyone in this category is a lead it would be DaFoe. He has the most screen-time of the category with 36.84% although that’s a bit on the sparse side. My general recollection is that he acts on-stage and just sort of waits around for Murnau to deliver him prey. Maybe Shadow of the Vampire stays is a bit too much in the jokey premise territory for DaFoe’s work to be considered a lead. Barring a second viewing, I’ll vote to keep DaFoe where he is.
I don’t see any mention of Marcia Gay Harden as a lead but I vaguely recall some mention that her role was sizable enough in Pollock to be considered. She’s in Pollock for 37.06% of the screen-time which is nearly twice that of her competition. Like I’m reasonably sure everyone else on this board, it’s been more than two decades since I’ve seen or really thought about Pollock, but Harden is still probably firmly in supportive spouse territory and I don’t much recall the thrust of the film being her relationship with Harris, as was the axis of the Redmayne/Jones relationship in The Theory of Everything.
I vote to keep Harden in support but I barely remember this year so I'll defer to anyone with a stronger memory of the film.
