Almost There: Claire Foy in "First Man"

by Cláudio Alves

For a film to get two nominations in the Best Supporting Actress category isn't especially rare. Several titles vie for that double spot this year, though Women Talking appears to be most likely to succeed. Jessie Buckley was nominated for The Lost Daughter last season and feels poised to nab a second consecutive honor, while Claire Foy has the other juiciest role. Moreover, this isn't the first time the British actress made famous by The Crown has been a significant player in the Oscar race. Early in the 2018 awards season, she appeared to be a near-lock for her work in Damien Chazelle's First Man, wherein the actress played a variation on AMPAS' favorite stock character – the stalwart wife to "a great man" of history. 

As Women Talking is gracing theaters with a new buzzy Foy performance and Chazelle's First Man follow-up Babylon is almost upon us, let's look at her work in the Neil Armstrong biopic…

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Team Experience Predix - Round 1: Post-Thanksgiving Snapshot

We'll be polling Team Experience biweekly to get their (collective) take on the Oscar race. This week, the 'Big Six' categories and Screenplay prizes.

THE FABELMANS

BEST PICTURE

Click to get expanded view.It’s a dangerous business to be an early frontrunner. However, if anyone can handle that title, it’s Steven Spielberg...

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Almost There: Lesley Manville in "Another Year"

by Cláudio Alves

With The Crown's fifth season comes a new opportunity for the world to bask in the glory of Lesley Manville. As Princess Margaret, she's a charismatic scene-stealer, indulging in all the melodrama thrown at her whilst brandishing a cigarette holder like a conductor's baton. Though a fair share of high-class glamour characterizes both her new Netflix gig and the role that earned her an Oscar nomination, that's not always the register within which Manville moves. You could even argue that she built her career on playing the opposite sort of people, working-class characters like the titular Mrs. Harris in this year's Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris – another outstanding performance.

Another example is Mary in Mike Leigh's Another Year. Prior to Phantom Thread, that 2010 drama surely marked the closest the actress had ever come to Oscar gold…

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Almost There: Thandiwe Newton in "Crash"

by Cláudio Alves

Happy belated birthday to Thandiwe Newton, who turned 50 last Sunday. From Flirting (1991) to God's Country (2022), the British actress has impressed across a variety of genres and roles, be they prestige melodrama or pulpy sci-fi. There's a tremendous flexibility to her screen presence, a vast range showcased even in projects that never quite rise to her level. Such is the case of Crash, Paul Haggis' divisive Best Picture winner, where Newton is just one thread within a broad tapestry of tricky racial dynamics, each storyline intertwining with ten others. Hyperlink cinema was all the rage in the 00s, and this particular example surely propelled Newton closer to the Oscar race than she'd been before or since.

Though it's no fun to look back on Crash, we shouldn't let the picture's general awfulness bleed into the memory of Newton's work. She's a beacon of quality, shining brightly amid the offensive generalizations which crash into sanctimonious incompetence…

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Will "Best Supporting Actress" prove the most volatile category this year?

by Nathaniel R

Kerry Condon is brilliant in "Banshees of Inisherin". Oscar nomination forthcoming

Early December has a way of suddenly narrowing down Oscar nomination dreams but until we get there, the year's most volatile acting category feels like Best Supporting Actress. From the plethora of films with multiple options (Women Talking, The Woman King, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Glass Onion, Tár, She Said) to stand-outs in films with male leads (The Banshees of Inisherin, Armageddon Time, Triangle of Sadness, The Whale, The Inspection) and one key still-to-screen performance (Jean Smart in Babylon), there are a lot of valid choices for Academy members. And that isn't even all of the options if they're feeling freethinking and adventurous this season (rare but one can always dream).

At this point we're predicting...

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