Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2023

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

Hello, dear readers! It’s been a while since the last time I posted an entry to this series. I was busy completing my theater class, resulting in a final showcase open to the public. Let me start with that because our current nominees for Best Actress have all done theater in different points of their respective careers, something we do not always get to say about most groups of acting nominees in a category. Truth is that’s the only connective tissue I could find with these nominees because their character introductions are vastly different from each other.

Are you ready? The year is 2023...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2015

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

In this year’s group of nominees - more than any other year I have covered so far - the given space during their introductory moments is incredibly important in establishing the character and their place within the story. Whether it is set in the past or the present, the stories where these characters are situated are framed through the visual juxtaposition of the character and their location a few shots into the film. While that is the unifying theme among these women, they also dabble into different variations of perspective, filmmaking styles, and acting registers. This makes for a dynamic comparison of their first impressions.

Are you ready? The year is 2015...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2016

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

This year’s group of nominees prove to be interesting with regards to their character introductions. One of them has one of the most disturbing, NSFW introductions this category has probably ever seen. Two of these films begin with a closeup of the actresses’ faces that also serve as the very first shots of their respective films. Three of the nominees are in the first scenes of their films (or four, if you count La La Land’s long take). Four of them are introduced with the key male character related to their personal journey.

All five of them are introduced in ways that strongly relate not only to how they identify themselves, but even how the people around them and their environment see them. As a group, all of the nominees’ first moments are filled with details that serve as the character's defining characteristics, even more than any other set of nominees since this series began. Are you ready?

The year is 2016. [NSFW CONTENT WARNING: Sexual violence]...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2017

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

This year’s slate of nominees showcase five performers strategically placed within the vision of their respective films right from their introductions. Whether introduced in a scene with actual spatial detail that immediately relates to the core of their characters or configured within the film’s style and tone in a more general sense, none of our first glimpses of them are deficient in meaning and purpose. It is probably not a coincidence that most of these performances appear in Best Picture nominees (and the one that didn’t probably came close too), a rarity in the Best Actress category.

Are you ready? The year is 2017...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2018

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

Happy New Year, fellow actressexuals! To start 2024, we return to this series with a banger of a year. 

One thing noticeable in this lineup is that the majority of these actresses are in films with clear auteurial vision. Two of them (Aparicio, Colman) worked with established directors that, by this point, have signature sensibilities and visual choices that are now being associated with them. Two of them (Lady Gaga, McCarthy) are in films directed by (relatively) new filmmakers that are beginning to hone their technical and directorial inclinations by this point. One of them (Close) worked with a director that is well-known and recognized in his home country.

Another thing to note: Lady Gaga marked her feature film debut as a lead actor while Aparicio was nominated for her first acting role ever.

Are you ready? The year is 2018...

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