Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

In revisiting 2005, Felicity Huffman in Transamerica remains my choice in a year that had a number of good performances by lead actresses, but no really great ones. Two actresses in little seen films, Joan Plowright in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Julianne Moore in The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio remain my closest runners-up.

I have no great love for Mrs. Henderson Presents, but I still have Judi Dench as a distant runner-up, but as with Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in the best actor race, I have a hard time remembering much of what Reese Witherspoon did to merit all those wins as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. My fifth slot now goes to Emma Thompson in Nanny McPhee.

My choices:

1. Q'orianka Kilcher, in "The New World"
2. Cate Blanchett, in "Little Fish"
3. Keira Knightley, in "Pride & Prejudice"
4. Emmanuelle Seigner, in "Backstage"
5. Cameron Diaz, in "In Her Shoes"
ALT: Isild le Besco, in "Backstage"

Mister Tee wrote:The whole point of pretty much every Austin vehicle is that the younger sister is the beauty, but that the more perceptive man will know to look beneath the surface and choose the brilliant sister.

You're not really a devoted, hard core Austenite, are you?



Edited By Uri on 1269631141

I think Mrs. Henderson Presents is Judi Dench's finest screen performance. She's particularly memorable in getting down just the right balance of her character’s foolishness and resolve, her amiability and steely seriousness. Her final speech is just wonderful. (I'm also very fond of the film itself, though, admittedly, I'm a sucker for World War 2 homefront movies. What starts off as a typical dotty old British woman romp develops into a picture of great charm and, even more impressively, real emotional depth. It's a very moving film about courage and camaraderie and conviction and show business and love and memory, even if Stephen Frears is one of the most visually lacklustre of contemporary directors considered major.) I wholeheartedly vote for Dame Judi.

WItherspoon is fine and she's fun but she's overshadowed by Joaquin Phoenix.

Huffman is fine and likable, although rather one note, and she's overshadowed by lovely work by Keven Zegers and Graham Greene

The other two have the feel of fillers.

My Own Top 5:
1. Joan Allen in The Upside Of Anger
2. Alice Teghill in Caterina In The Big City
3, Judi Dench in Mrs. Henderson Presents
4. Q'Orianka Kilcher in The Lost World
5. María Alche in The Holy Girl



Edited By Damien on 1269582538

Have yet to watch Theron's performance but everyone on the list appears to be a filler and I am hardpressed to find alternate choices with the exception of two.

Voted for Huffman here.

My top 5:

Joan Plowright, Mrs Palfrey at the Clairemont
Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Judi Dench, Mrs Henderson Presents



Edited By Reza on 1269618183

Precious Doll wrote:Emmanuelle Devos in Kings and Queen being the prime example.

Good call -- she absolutely deserved far more attention than she got this year and easily rated a spot on the Best Actress ballot.

I've seen them all - the Best Actress nominees since Oscars started, I mean. Well, not all, but almost. And I've always voted in this game - even in the very few cases when I had missed one of the nominees.
But self-respect prevents me from voting here - and it's the first time I will choose "Null Vote". Because this is - and I repeat, I saw almost all - the worst Best Actress race in Oscar history. Forget about 1975 - there were at least two remarkable performances there (though one, I admit, in the wrong category). Thirty years later, American cinema finally reached its nadir - or at least its actresses did. Italian cinema nowadays isn't what it used to be, less and less movies are produced every year, and the David di Donatello - our Oscar - has problems sometimes in finding five worthwhile nominees. But never, even here, has the quality been as bad as in this Best Actress contest.

They picked what was probably the most popular actress of the bunch (I say "probably" because Witherspoon is one of those American actresses who are almost unknown on this side of the ocean). And maybe they even did the right choice, considering the level of the other nominees.
Back then - well, 2005 is the day before yesterday actually - there was an attempt to make the race seem better by trying to convince people that Felicity Huffman had given a great, unusual, courageous performance as a transexual in Transamerica. Now that it's over we can face the sad truth: the movie was dreadful, and the actress wasn't much better.
I've nothing against old English professionals, one can usually count on them, and I've even voted for Judi Dench once before, but in Mrs Henderson Presents she's really embarassing - an unintentionally grotesque performance. Keira Knightley was unimpressive as usual in another misguided film version of a classic of British literature and even the most basic tv-movie can boast better performances than what Charlize Theron did in her awful movie.
I know, I sounded like an Italian version of Damien - "all bad, all bad". But I swear that I'm objective. Impossible to make a choice this time.



Edited By ITALIANO on 1269550609