1 Day to Oscar: First Time Nominees
Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 7:00PM by Murtada
With one day to Oscar, let’s salute 2016’s class of first time nominees in the four acting categories. So many great actors never get nominated, and many just get that one nomination. So it must so exciting for these lucky 7: Isabelle Huppert, Ruth Negga, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Lucas Hedges, Dev Patel and Andrew Garfield.
They range in age from 20 (Hedges) to 63 (Huppert). As befitting that range there are newcomers, legends and everything in between amongst them...
Only two of them arguably came close to a nomination before this year. Garfield received Golden Globe, BAFTA and Critics Choice nominations for The Social Network (2011). Patel was in 2008’s best picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, for which he received BAFTA and SAG nominations.
Looking at this decade of Oscar (2010-2016), there’s usually between 7 to 9 first timers amongst the 20 acting nominees every year. 2012 was the anomaly with just 4 first timers: Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook, Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables, Emmanuelle Riva in Amour and Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Famously that year supporting actor only welcomed previous winners while supporting actress had a mix of previous winners and nominees.
In the last three years Of Oscar, 3 first timers have won. Think Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong’o, all first timers, surrounding Academy favorite Cate Blanchett in the winners photo. It repeated in 2014 and 2015 with Julianne Moore and Leonardo DiCaprio being the multiple nominees surounded by first timers. Unlikely to repeat this year unless we are in for major surprises in Lead Actress and Actor.
Lately Lead Actress has been the least welcoming acting category for first timers, only Brie Larson in Room (2015) won the category in the teens. Supporting Actor on the other hand gave us 4 first timers winning this decade: Christian Bale in The Fighter (2010), Leto in Dallas Buyers Club (2013), J K Simmons in Whiplash (2014) and Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies (2015). Same with supporting actress: Octavia Spencer in The Help (2011), Nyongó in 12 Years a Slave (2013), Patricia Arquette in Boyhood (2014) and Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl (2015).
Will Huppert add an Oscar to the Cesar she won last night?
This year there will definitely be one first timer who wins as Mahershala Ali is the favorite in supporting actor with Dev Patel as his only challenger. But if Huppert has her say, there will be more than one. She indicated to the NY Times that she’s earned the Oscar when asked if she will win:
“Yeah, it’s possible. Yes, for me it’s time ”.
Reader Comments (18)
Out of all the nominees I think it's a little strange that Garfield was the least deserving but most likely to be nominated again. Negga and Harris have the 2nd best chance of being nominated again.
Plummer wasn't a first timer. He had a nomination for The Last Station in 2009.
thanks Bensunce for the correction. I fixed.
Harris looks incredible for 40. She looks much younger than Emma Stone (28).
I went there.
Tom: Is he the likeliest to return, though? I never fully bought into the "hype" behind him, and he definitely seemed to peak very fast. I'd place their likelihood to return like so:
1. Mahershala Ali (Even his more "sell-out" moves (Hunger Games, Luke Cage, Battle Angel: Alita) are unusually smart choices. If someone in Hollywood tells you selling out smart doesn't help your reputation among actors? They're lying.)
2. Dev Patel (He's already been in a Best Picture WINNER. Even as a non-white actor, that'll buy a lot of lee-way for "filler" slots.)
3. Lucas Hedges (He's a young white guy with a bitter energy to him. Him not showing up at least once more would be crazy. Unless he sells out really badly...)
4. Naomie Harris (Neither of her out and out sell out choices (Pirates of the Caribbean and Daniel Craig Bond) were dumb ideas on paper. Didn't turn out as well as they seemed, though. Don't know how Andy Serkis' Jungle Book turns out, though.)
5. Andrew Garfield (One more sell-out choice on the level of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and he's over. He's a bit over-rated as an actor anyway, but I'm not sure I see how nomination #2 manages to happen, right now.)
6. Ruth Negga (Yeah, I don't think this is "impossible", but I'm far less inclined to believe she'll become an enduring favourite.)
7. Isabelle Huppert (She's too French, and often too dangerous, for me to believe the Academy will throw her more than one. I'd be happy to be wrong about that, but that would be a miracle.)
"Lately Lead Actress has been the least welcoming acting category for first timers"
Right? It's a bit boring. As an actressexual I demand variety.
Another reminder that Garfield didn't even get a nomination for being the heart and soul of The Social Network. And of course the fact that that movie lost Best Picture and Best Director to that terribly overrated costume drama (a snub that still stings to this day...it's my Carol).
Yeah, that Garfield snub for THE SOCIAL NETWORK and his great work in SILENCE makes me not mad at all of his nomination this year even if it is for the wrong movie.
Maybe it's just me but when I am quietly but effectively affected and blown away by a performance of an actor/tress in a movie, it remains etched in memory. Never Let Me Go in 2010 was like that with me with a truly devastating performance from this hitherto unknown actor Andrew Garfield as Tommy. While Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley were also excellent, methinks Garfield was the movie's MVP. I have since been a fan of his although I shy away from his franchise movies. Saw him in New York once when he appeared in a late-night show to promote Spiderman.
So this is just a shout-out for him and I am one of the few people here who is happy he got his nomination albeit for the wrong movie (which he should have gotten for Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go). I wish he was nominated for Silence rather than Hacksaw Ridge but these two films he did in 2016 still cannot best the incandescent power he had in Romanek's film in 2010.
I am hoping that Huppert will be nominated again in the future but like what was said of her -- she is 'too dangerous', untamed, and whose film choices do not correlate with the Academy's taste. But I hope she gets nominated again in a film where her sense of daring is in full sail.
You all realize this will be the first time since 1997 all four acting winners play fictional characters, right? Amazing that it took 19 years.
@Volvagia- I think Gerfield has the best chance since he is young established and white/british. He is a known name and has been for a while and recently started challenging himself (he is playing Prior Walter in the British adatpation of Angels in America soon). All of this points to other nominations down the road, as opposed to a "well we nominated you, so stop complaining" nod to Huppert. She will continue giving good performances but I doubt she will get in again. Negga is too beautiful and charismatic to be ignored again. Harris, despite being drop dead beautiful, has passed herself off as a character actress. Her turns in the Bond series and Pirate series were the best parts of the movies. That I think merits another nom down the road. As for Ali, I love him but feel like he is destined to end up on TV and winning a bunch of Emmys. And until recently Patel seemed stuck in playing the only Indian part that required an accent in a movie. Hopefully he is offered better parts.
This is all just my opinion and I could very well be wrong.
Agree. Probably the last nomination for all of them.
Obviously, there are so many outside forces that determine whether actors (Oscar-nominated or not) receive the complex, layered parts that merit award consideration, but most of the responsibility really is up to the actor (as well as their managers and agents, obviously), to be really smart and savvy with their careers post-Oscar nomination/win.
Octavia Spencer has been incredibly choosy since winning for The Help, and that is absolutely by design. Smashed, Snowpiercer, Black and White, Fruitvale Station, etc...she's been challenging herself and showing range, not resting on her laurels. She's earned that second Oscar nomination.
Halle Berry and Adrien Brody, for instance, were AWFUL with their choices post-Oscar, either choosing terrible big-budget films for the money, or dreadful, wildly misguided indies. Neither one has scored a second nomination since their win, and I highly doubt either one of them will anytime soon (or ever).
From this group, I'd say Ruth Negga, Lucas Hedges, and Dev Patel are likely to return again. I think their choices in projects/roles before their nominations indicate they will have what it takes to make another film that catches Oscar's interests. I would say Naomie Harris as well, but I'm sort of horrified that her next role will be alongside The Rock in a movie based on an 80s video game about monsters. What is she thinking?!
Nice to know I'm not the only one who loved Garfield in Never Let Me Go (loved Mulligan in that too). Between that work, and his devastating performance in Boy A, I am thrilled he's getting awards attention, even if I'm not crazy about the film he's getting it for.
Count me among those who were mightily impressed with A. Garf's work in Hacksaw...he absolutely sold me on his character's charm (that smile!) and iron-clad conviction (successfully giving us shades of Jimmy Stewart star-charisma in his characterization of Desmond Doss). He had great chemistry with Teresa Palmer to boot (between this and Lights Out, Teresa is on her way to her first nom too). And the scene where he wearily walks away from the ridge as his fellow infantrymen look on is what Oscar clips are made of...needless to say, I think he'll be back at the Oscars.
Also surprised Hugo Weaving (as Desmond's father) didn't factor in this awards season.
@Aaron
Octavia Spencer has been incredibly choosy since winning for The Help, and that is absolutely by design.
Paradise, Insurgent, Allegiant, Fathers and Daughters, Bad Santa 2 !?
I don't think Octavia Spencer has been choosy. She's been a steady workhorse since she's won, and she said that that's by design:https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/movies/octavia-spencer-hidden-figures.html
Huppert getting nominated for a film role as dangerous as Elle is already out of this world insanely unpredictable. But even Isabelle Adjani had two, and Marion Cotillard got nominated twice as well. Huppert is a legend and she's always going to work and do spectacular work, especially in films that are on Cannes. She's also apparently very good at campaigning, so I expect her to be nominated again, maybe for an English role? Yeah that seems possible.
Isabelle is in another Haneke movie coming out this year and the Academy loves him, so I can see her coming back...now that she is on the radar.