The Curious Case of the Double Nominee
Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 9:30AM 
To get an Oscar nomination is a wonderful stroke of luck, to get two is even luckier. To get two in the same year is the equivalent of finding a four-leaf clover in a sprawling field. If you're an actor this is particularly true since the Academy's rules make it impossible for the same performer to get two nominations in the same category simultaneously. That's why, for instance, Margot Robbie could only score a single nomination this season. Both her contending performances were supporting roles so, even if she won enough votes for a double nomination -- which she might have if BAFTA is indication -- the performance with fewer votes would have been locked out.
For Scarlett Johansson that wasn't a problem. Lead or Marriage Story and Supporting for Jojo Rabbit. She thus became the 12th actor to achieve this rare honor, the 9th woman, and if she wins either award, she'll be the 8th performer to do so. Statistically speaking, there's around 64% probability of victory for a double nominated actor. Let's celebrate the 12 double-nominated actors in the history of the Academy Awards after the jump…
FAY BAINTER in 1938
Best Actress, White Banners
Best Supporting Actress, Jezebel (winner)
A deserved double citation and even more deserved win. Bainter was a character actress so her chances to play the lead were sadly scarce, which makes the nomination for White Banners all the sweeter.
TERESA WRIGHT in 1942
Best Actress, The Pride of the Yankees
Best Supporting Actress, Mrs. Miniver (winner)
Hollywood and the Academy were crazy about Teresa Wright in the early 40s. Not surprisingly, it was her beatific character work in a Best Picture winner that guaranteed her a statuette.
BARRY FITZGERALD in 1944
Best Actor, Going My Way
Best Supporting Actor, Going My Way (winner)
After 1944, the Academy changed its rules so that this sort of tomfoolery couldn't happen again.
JESSICA LANGE in 1982
Best Actress, Frances
Best Supporting Actress, Tootsie (winner)
Everyone knew Meryl Streep was going to win the Best Actress Oscar for Sophie's Choice so Lange's Oscar was widely seen as a consolation prize for losing that award and her sterling work in Frances. Either way, this is a cracking double citation for two wonderfully different performances, both awards-worthy in their own right.
SIGOURNEY WEAVER in 1988
Best Actress, Gorillas in the Mist
Best Supporting Actress, Working Girl
Despite her double victory at that year's Golden Globes, Weaver left the Oscars empty-handed. To this day, she's never won Hollywood's most coveted little golden man.
AL PACINO in 1992
Best Actor, Scent of a Woman (winner)
Best Supporting Actor, Glengarry Glen Ross
Pacino rode the wave of an overdue narrative straight to the prize. However, after the golden year of 1992, the actor seemed to fall off the Oscar radar. He only returned this year with The Irishman.
HOLLY HUNTER in 1993
Best Actress, The Piano (winner)
Best Supporting Actress, The Firm
One of the best Best Actress winners ever and one of the most mystifying supporting nominations of the 90s, Holly Hunter surely left an impression in the 1993 cinematic year. At least, she won for the right movie.
EMMA THOMPSON in 1993
Best Actress, The Remains of the Day
Best Supporting Actress, In the Name of the Father
It's astounding how, despite getting two nominations, the Academy still managed to snub Thompson's best performance of 1993. That would be her Beatrice in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing.
JULIANNE MOORE in 2002
Best Actress, Far from Heaven
Best Supporting Actress, The Hours
2002 was the year of Julianne Moore playing discontent 50s housewives. She never really stood a chance with The Hours, but she did get some richly deserved critics' awards for her performance in Far from Heaven.
JAMIE FOXX in 2004
Best Actor, Ray (winner)
Best Supporting Actor, Collateral
Category fraud alert! These are two inarguable leading roles. It could be argued, however, that, despite him winning for the more traditional biopic performance, Foxx's best performance of 2004 was as the disgruntled cab driver in Collateral.
CATE BLANCHETT in 2007
Best Actress, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Best Supporting Actress, I'm Not There
We'll never forget Blanchett's expression when faced with her shouty Oscar clip for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It's one of the actress' worst performances and quite a contrast to her bold adventurous work as a facet of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON in 2019
Best Actress, Marriage Story
Best Supporting Actress, Jojo Rabbit
After years of worthy work being systematically ignored by the Academy, this feels like just recognition.
Can Scarlett Johansson overcome either of her categories' frontrunners and be the next actor to turn a double nomination into a glorious win?
Reader Comments (66)
Julianne loosing for Far from heaven is one of the worst lost in Oscar history ... Nicole should've won supporting for The Hours & Julianne Best Actress for Heaven...
I remember it being such a shock when poor Sigourney lost both of her nods since leading up to that year the batting average for double noms was 1000. I thought she was a shoo-in for her delightful contribution to Working Girl. Sad she's never won a competitive one...where is her honorary at least!!
LOVE Fay Bainter! She was a premiere supporting actress but thanks to how the studio system worked at the time she would on occasion headline a B feature like The War Against Mrs. Hadley or The Lady and the Mob. I wasn't wild about White Banners but she was wonderful in it as was Claude Rains.
Teresa Wright is terrific in both Mrs. Miniver and Pride of the Yankees (I would have rather seen her win for Yankees though) but neither equal her work in Shadow of a Doubt which for some mysterious reason was ignored.
Glad Scarlett has finally garnered some recognition but I don't think she has a chance to win, the group think is too strong for the frontrunners. Hopefully she'll be back.
82 and 88 are my two favourite supporting actress lineups.
I would have nominated Pacino for Donnie Brasco.
I love ScarJo but I detest JoJo Rabbit. I would totally erase that nomination.
I'm so glad Scarlett Johansson finally got her due from the Academy. She's deserved it since she was 19 for Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Double nominations are so weird but they're so much easier to take when category fraud isn't part of it. I will never be okay with the Jamie Foxx year. Yes, he's better in Collateral but why waste a (fraudulent) spot in supporting when everyone was planning on handing him the Oscar for Ray anyway? I think there's an argument to be made that Lange is lead in "Tootsie" but its' borderline so that's less bothersome.
Overall though the doubles EITHER mean "we love you right now so much" or they mean "we are obsessed with these two Best Picture nominees"... in Scarlett's case maybe it's the former, maybe it's the latter. who knows.
I'm really happy about Scarlett's double, because both performances are so great! (Probably the best set of appropriately categorized performances since E-Thom in 93).
Julianne Moore's double loss in 2002 stung like a bee, especially because her mid 90s-early 2000s hot streak was followed by more than a decade's absence from the film awards conversation. After her omissions for 'A Single Man' (in a super weak category outside of Mo' Nique and Vera Farmiga) and 'The Kids Are All Right,' I feared her time with Oscar had come and gone. Thankfully, that was not the case.
I would love to see a post like this in the veins of
"Who should be double nominee?"
I don't remember anyone by my mind now. But, I know someone could make a.list and share.
I agree that Jamie Foxx is better in Collateral than he is in Ray. He wasn't my win (that would be Javier Bardem in The Sea Inside), but he came close.
I think my favorite of the double nominees is Jessica Lange. Between the two films, she shows off an incredible range as an actor.
What was the history behind the academy's rule about not actors being able to get 2 nominations in one category? I always found it strange that the actors are like the only ones with this rule, as we have seen countless cases of double Atwood/Powell nominations or double John Williams nominations or even double Steven Soderberg nominations. So what gives? It's like the academy WANTS more cases of category frauds (see also the Kate Winslet year with the fraud campaign)
Weaver has gone without any citation since this double set of nominations,should have walked to the Supporting Trophy in 88 and 97,You can read a lot on the net about why she lost in 88 all are genuine reasons.
Blanchett is my single worst ever Best Actress nomination,there was no need for it and it just goes to show even 12 yrs ago they weren't seeing everything because Tang Wei was right there!
Does anyone really like Scarlett in Jo Jo Rabbit,the accent was way off.
Lange losing Best Actress which she should have won in 1982 made her Best Actress win in 94 inevitable so thanks Meryl.
Julianne should have had 2002 Best Actress though I wouldn't have nominated her in Supporting as I feel she's a bit off her game in The Hours.
Cruise probably would have been a better choice in Supoorting instead of Foxx.
Yes that Hunter nomination is strange but Holly was everywhere in 93 as was Thompson or it's lazily voting for in the conversation people.
Pacino winning was for his career but he would have been a worthy supporting winner in 92.
Fay Bainter was also great years later in The Children's Hour which she was nominated for.
What a year Lange had in 82. I still wish she had won for Frances, but she's do damn great in Tootsie.
Interesting that although Sigourney never won, she’s most likely the closest anyone has ever come to winning both leading and supporting Oscars on the same night. I think it’s quite possible she was the runner-up in both categories that year.
Lange has Teri Garr's Oscar.
Can you believe that Hunter and Weaver actually got 4 of the 10 nominations for actresses that year? How insane is that?
Nicole should have won for Moulin Rouge! and Moore the following year for her lead performance.
I really wish Scarlett would win for Marriage Story. Wishful thinking, I know...
Anyone think Weaver has a comeback narrative ahead cos she has the Avatar sequel,The Good House and My Salenger Year coming out in 2020.
It was so funny to watch Blanchett being critical of her own acting in that Oscar clip ha ha ha. Well I think she deserved both of them. I was hoping for a tie between Swinton and Blanchett in supporting
Nathanial: Is Streep the one that got the closest to almost get a double nom? I was thinking for her Adaptation / The Hours combo
I'm not supposed to like Scarlett but her double nom is my fave out of those 12.
Arlo -- no, she has Lesley Ann Warren's Oscar ;)
no, she has Kim Stanley's Oscar.
I wish they would get rid of the "only once per category" rule for acting. Marion Cotillard should have been a double nominee in 2014 for two of the best performances of the decade / all-time: The Immigrant and Two Days, One Night.
Lange is definitely a lead in TOOTSIE, despite the fact that she tried to qualify her win in her acceptance speech by referring to Dustin as her "leading lady." I thought Teri Garr was the Supporting Actress standout in TOOTSIE and should have won the Oscar that year.
I like Jessica Lange in general but I can’t quite understand the praise for her performance in Tootsie. She’s…fine, but a bit dull (especially compared to the cast around her, who are popping like crazy). Teri Garr (nominated alongside Lange) would have made a better winner.
markgordonuk: Yes to Tang Wei! An excellent performance in an excellent film.
Edwin: I’ve thought that too. Best Actress that year was very hard to decide, and I can imagine each of the nominees being the runner-up to Foster.
No one was more surprised than Scarlett herself with her double nomination - nor does she think she's such a good actress herself.
no, she has Glenn Close's Oscar.
As Peggy said, is one of the best lineups ever.
I'm with Arlo, Teri Garr was fantastic in Tootsie! She's a comic genius, she had the audience eating out of her hand in Tootsie.
I'm a Warren/Preston voter.
Sigourney was the favourite for Gorillas not Working Girl. The "she touched real gorillas" chatter went on and on and I saw the making-of on TV like eight times.
Hey wait, I was there at the time and I think that most people thought Jessica Lange's win was correct. It was almost an impossible role to pull off. She couldn't play dumb but had to come up with a way to believably not really notice what was going on with Dorothy. Coupled with a would-have-won-in-any-other-year performance for Frances, Hollywood finally knew that she could act and that her performance in Tootsie was acting, not just playing a "dumb blonde." Phew.
PS I was sort of hoping that everyone might coalesce around Scarlett for Marriage Story this year, but that's only because I get kind of an icky feeling having Renee so easily win for Judy.
If I were alive for that year, Jessica Lange vs Lesley Ann Warren vs Teri Garr would have murdered me.
I think Jessica Lange was quite good in Tootsie, she helped ground the farce and humanize it. But the performance is simply not as outstanding or as interesting as Garr's was for me.
I'm still not over Sigourney's double loss. :(
Sean -- NOOOOOoooo. cause you know in years when Streep had two leading performances she would just get nominated for both of them.
Sigourney has a great legacy of films so the Oscar would be a great career capper.
Dave--totally cosign.
There are so many actresses who need Honorary Oscars and they're not getting any younger. The Board of Governors should stop goofing around and hand it to:
GLENN CLOSE (72 years old)
SIGOURNEY WEAVER (70 years old)
CATHERINE DENEUVE (76 years old)
LILY TOMLIN (80 years old)
sadly i can't see Oscar going for KATHLEEN TURNER (they never liked her to begin with -sigh) or MARSHA MASON or ISABELLE ADJANI or DEBRA WINGER (all popular with the Academy but for brief time periods) but they would be cool, too.
and before you know it ANGELA BASSETT, JUDY DAVIS, MICHELLE PFEIFFER, MIRANDA RICHARDSON, ALFRE WOODARD, and such will be old enough t o consider it so time is a wasting to start working through this list.
Pitt clearly should have had the double nom in 2011 for "Moneyball" and "The Tree of Life." Heck, disregarding category fraud controversies, he should have been twice nominated this year, also.
@Frieda. That could explain the big smile she's been having during the awards season.
I agree with Edward L. about Jessica Lange, i think she even breaks a little the ryhtm of timing in the movie. I have the perception that she acts like this new tendency of being funny pretending that are not funny basing big part of the comedy in the dialogues instead of the action.
God, i miss the times of silliness when actors weren't afraid to exaggerate their facial expressions and body language.
Fay Bainter, Teresa Wright and Barry Fitzgerald all won the Supporting category. And they all lost the Lead category to the protagonist of the film for which they won Supporting.
FAY BAINTER won Supporting for Jezebel and lost Lead to Bette Davis in Jezebel.
TERESA WRIGHT won Supporting for Mrs Miniver and lost Lead to Greer Garson in Mrs Minivier.
BARRY FITZGERALD won Supporting for Going My Way and lost Lead to Bing Crosby in Going My Way.
I like Jojo Rabbit and I love Scarjo in the movie but in these weeks I couldn’t help but think that J.Lo could have filled her spot 😭
Wow - lots of focus on Jamie Foxx (Leading) and some arguments over Jessica Lange (Supporting in my opinion - she’s basically a sub-plot!)
Yet all the actress-sexuals seem to give a free pass to Julianne Moore (almost as egregiously Leading as Foxx - I thought The Favourite last year again proved that 3-Lead movies absolutely exist!)
From my alternative Oscarverse:
Fay Bainter: Lead: loses to Wendy Hiller
Supporting: Wins
Teresa Wright: L.: loses to Katharine Hepburn
S.: loses to Agnes Moorehead
Barry Fitzgerald: (preferred) L. loses to Charles Hoyer
S.: Wins
Or
L.: Wins
S.: loses to Claude Rains
Jessica Lange: L.: loses to Meryl Streep
S.: loses to Glenn Close
Sigourney Weaver: L.: loses to Glenn Close
S.: Wins
Al Pacino: L.: loses to Clint Eastwood
S.: Wins
Holly Hunter & Emma Thompson: lose to Debra Winger
S.: lose to Anna Paquin
Julianne Moore: L.: loses to Nicole Kidman
S.: loses to Meryl Streep
Jamie Foxx: L.: Wins
S.: loses to Clive Owen
Cate Blanchett: L.: loses to Julie Christie
S.: Wins
Scarlett Johansson: L.: Wins
S.: loses to Margot Robbie
I LOVED Scarlett in Jojo Rabbit. And I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked the movie in general. She is motherly warmth personified in this film.
After seeing Bombshell, I'm really not that impressed with Margot Robbie. She's fine, but I thought she was more memorable in Once Upon a Time even though she had less to do.
Scarlett should've had multiple Oscar nods for: Ghost World, Lost in Translation aka BEST FILM EVER!, Girl with a Pearl Earring, A Love Song for Bobby Long, Match Point, Her, and Under the Skin.
Gena was able to sneak in with the win because the voters had two outstanding performances from Working Girl to choose from (and I bet a majority of those WG votes went to Joan, the real supporting actress in the film).
Lange is lovely in Tootsie but she doesn't hold a candle to the other four women in that category. Teri, Lesley, Glenn, and Kim all would have been much more deserving winners.
@Nathaniel
Superb group of actresses, though you neglect to include one Liv Ullman, who may be the single most deserving of an honorary award. She deserved to win in '76 and should have MANY more nominations to boot. And Max Von Sydow. Why has the Academy ignored these two icons of world cinema?
Just saw Judy last night ... and add my name to the list of people who would rather Scarlett win Best Actress this year. (I also really liked her in Jojo Rabbit!)
There was nearly a 40-year gap in double nominees ('44-'82)! Any thoughts on who came close in that time period to getting a double nomination? Considering how much the Academy loved Jane Fonda in the '70s, I'm surprised they didn't nominate her for SA for Comes a Horseman (category fraud, but still) OR California Suite, to balance against the Coming Home Actress win. Both of those films had other acting nominees, so you know the films were on its radar.
Maybe Scarlett wins for MARRIAGE STORY... There's a lot of talk about her being a worthier winner than Zellweger and there's a lot of passion for MARRIAGE STORY, so I would have a great time if she upsets!
As for Best Supporting Actress, it's Dern to lose: people just want to honor the person/actress, which surpasses honoring the performance. Not even if JOJO RABBIT wins Best Picture (which I believe might happen considering the guild wins), Dern will win.
.
Note - TOP 5 PERFORMANCES FROM A DOUBLE NOMINEE:
#1 Hunter, THE PIANO
#2 Lange, FRANCES
#3 Johansson, MARRIAGE STORY
#4 Blanchett, I'M NOT THERE
#5 Weaver, WORKING GIRL
This is all making me want to see Tootsie again, it's been awhile.
@kermit_the_frog: You may have a point there, Moore is the only one of the 3 main actresses in The Hours to appear in 2 of the 3 time periods. But one could also make the argument that all 3 are supporting, an argument that's been made for Parasite and other films that divide pretty evenly in smaller doses among the actors.
Every year I hope and hope Max von Sydow will be given an Honorary Oscar. Such a tremendous talent.
Kate Winslet came close to a double twice but never quite pulled it off. During the Revolutionary Road/ The Reader year of course. And I remember in 04 she was discussed as a supporting actress contender for Finding Neverland, though the nominations never came rolling in, and she was left with only the lead nomination for Eternal Sunshine.