Presenting Oscar's Chosen 'Supporting' Actresses of the Films of 2018.
Two warring ladies of the royal court, two desperate mothers, and an amoral ambitious politician's wife. That's the 'supporting' actress roll call for the 91st Oscars, though two of the characters are leading ladies. Still, we're here to talk performances, first and foremost. Who wowed us, whose take on their characters left us wanting, and are these actresses making the most of what's in their screenplays? [Sad Disclaimer: Unfortunately since we did not receive screeners this season (moving/address problems) we were unable to do the normal screentime count portion of the Smackdown though we're just as curious as you surely are about how the screentime in The Favourite actually measures up from actress-to-actress. We won't trust any report till we do our own because we've heard conflicting statements, so we will eventually do the count.]
THIS MONTH'S PANELISTS
Here to talk about these five nominated turns are actress Ginny O'Keefe, blogger Robin Write (Filmotomy), two senior Film Experience contributors Murtada Elfadl, Chris Feil, and your host Nathaniel R. The final collective panelist is the Readers (hey, that means you!!!) who took the time to send us their votes. Okay, let's go!
Thank you for all the votes for this weeks Supporting Actress Smackdown for the 91st Oscars - so many ballots for us to sift through with opinions so varied which is just how it should be and how we like it (if you forgot, we'll accept them today as well but they're due by midnight!) Due to behind the scenes technical stuff we'll be posting the Smackdown Monday night, but it's time to meet the panel. We cheekily asked them for their pics in the three chopping-block craft categories but then the Academy reversed course. We're sharing their votes anyway, because shouldn't you always know who people are rooting for in cinematography, editing, and makeup? We think so!
Picture: BlacKkKlansman Cinematography: A Star is Born Editing: BlacKkKlansman Makeup and Hair: Vice
Ginny O’Keefe was born and raised in Westchester, New York. She credits her love of film and television to her parents, since they let her watch pretty much whatever she wanted growing up. They also helped fuel her love of acting by frequently taking her and her two sisters into Manhattan to see Broadway shows. She graduated from Elon University in 2016, with a BFA in Acting and a minor in Communications. She now lives in Los Angeles working as an actress and hopes to write and produce her own films one day. Follow her on Instagram.
Picture: The Favourite Cinematography: Cold War Editing: The Favourite Makeup and Hair: Mary Queen of Scots
Robin Write is the Editor-in-Chief of Filmotomy, a movie site that promotes the likes of female filmmakers, independent film, world cinema, documentaries etc. He's been writing, thinking, breathing, watching movies for as long as he can remembe and still feeds the addiction that is the Oscar race for near-30 years - a truly hard habit to break.
Picture: The Favourite Cinematography: Cold War Editing: BlacKkKlansman Makeup and Hair: Border
Nathaniel R has been running The Film Experience since the first seacreature grew legs and walked ashore in prehistoric times. He was there when Wings won best picture of 1928. Kidding... but he does love Wings and he's been loving the Oscars for far too long!
Picture: The Favourite / Black Panther Cinematography: A Star is Born Editing: The Favourite / BlacKkKlansman Makeup: Border
Chris Feil writes regularly at The Film Experience (including his column on movie music called Soundtracking) and lives in Columbus, OH. He cohosts the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast and has also been published at Vice, Paste, and Decider. You can easily beetlejuice him into your conversations by talking about soundtracks, RuPaul's Drag Race, and WALL•E. He is remembering to notice the collateral beauty around him.
Picture: BlacKkKlansman Cinematography: A Star is Born Editing: The Favourite Makeup and Hair: Border
You know Murtada from his writing on TFE and as the co-host of our podcast. However one thing you might not know is that recently he recorded his first video interview; with rising playwright Jordan E Cooper whose play AIN'T NO “MO starts at The Public Theater on March 12th.
The Supporting Actress Smackdown began at StinkyLulu's dearly departed blogspot many years ago. We revived the series here for summertime airings with his blessing a few years ago, and get this, there are only 25 years that haven't been visited. If you axe the years that are too recent for retrospectives and remove the years that have a missing film (neither streaming nor available on DVD) than we're down to only 12 years that we can visit!
In total 56 years have been reviewed. In those Smackdowns, the rotating panel has agreed with Oscar 48% of the time (if you count ties that included the Oscar winner as agreement. Though Oscar has never had a tie in a Supporting category there have been six ties at the Smackdown.) Herewith an index of where we've been and where we might go next...
We talk about the three actresses (Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard) in WW II women's picture So Proudly We Hail. The running time slog of For Whom the Bell Tolls which doesn't showcase Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman well,the hit play turned message movie Watch on the Rhine and its place as a "homefront" movie when the war barely touched our soil, and religious epic The Song of Bernadette which won Jennifer Jones the Best Actress Oscar.
You can listen to the 1 hour podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Presenting Oscar's Chosen Supporting Actresses of the Films of 1943.
A cruel nun, a flirtatious nurse, a gypsy rebel, a harried mother, and a wealthy hostess. It's not the elaborate start of a joke, but the nominated characters from the Best Supporting Actress race of 1943. There was only one returning nominee (Gladys Cooper) but in the 1940s all newbie lists were common since the supporting categories had been around less than a decade! Anne Revere and Cooper would eventually become three time Supporting Actress nominees (Only 23 women in history have accomplished that feat, Octavia Spencer the most recent to join the list just last season) but for Paulette Goddard, Katina Paxinou, and Lucille Watson this was their one and only time in Oscar's golden embrace.
THIS MONTH'S PANELISTS
Here to talk about these five nominated turns and either agree with the Academy or crown a new retrospective winner are, in alpha order: Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic), Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) and Nathaniel R (your host here at TFE). Readers (hey, that means you!!!) form the collective final panelist each month. Okay, time for the main event...
Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 8:39PM 
