Almost There: Lois Smith in "Five Easy Pieces"

by Cláudio Alves

No matter how respected or prolific a thespian may be, the glow of Oscar gold isn't guaranteed. Just ask Lois Smith, a titan of the contemporary American stage with nearly 150 screen credits to her name. The closest she ever came to the Academy's good graces was at the start of the 70s and the New Hollywood craze, when playing Jack Nicholson's pianist sister in Five Easy Pieces. Bob Rafelson's film is something of a classic for those interested in this era of American cinema, but its legend tends to circle around the leading man and, maybe, Karen Black. Still, Smith delivers a performance worth considering and, as the title of this post suggests, she was almost there…

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2020: Essie Davis in "Babyteeth" and "True History of the Kelly Gang"

by Nick Taylor

Been a lot of chatter about this year’s supporting actress race. You can check out the comments section of any given post on this site over the past year and probably find this category poking its head into an entirely unrelated conversation. Can’t imagine why! To give a quick word on the race, I think this is a remarkably strong lineup, boasting five incredibly talented women who tangibly elevate their films. The sheer number of contenders popping up at other ceremonies makes these nominations feel truly earned - no one coasted to their slot, and the variations of genre, roles, career trajectory, and screen time are delightfully eclectic. A film or two may be sketchy, but the work isn’t, and every one of those actresses would make a fine winner. 

As per the tradition of my companion pieces to the Supporting Actress Smackdown (coming in a week!), I’ve decided to bypass anyone with visible buzz in favor of an actress whose work I loved and wish had gotten more attention than it did. This category‘s already had plenty of airtime lately, so I’m sticking to just one write-up. Luckily, my favorite supporting actress of the year gave two performances worth talking about...

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Oscar Trivia: Ranking the His & Hers Supporting Oscar Wins

Moreno & Chakiris winning for WEST SIDE STORYby Nathaniel R

Only 8 times in the 92 year history of the Academy Awards have both Supporting trophies gone to the same movie. We were thinking about this factoid recently given that 1957 is the topic of next week's Smackdown (get those votes in). 1957's Sayonara wins for Miyoki Umeshi and Red Buttons (who played newlyweds) marked the third instance of both supporting trophies going to the same movie in just a seven year span. Given that that specific type of Oscar pairing has only happened five times more in the next sixty-two years of history, it's clear that "his & hers" was definitely more of a 1950s voter mindset than it is now.

[Tangent: Lead 'His & Hers' statues happen with about the same frequency but are mostly bunched up in the late 70s for some reason]

Let's rank what came before with double supporting wins in a highly unscientific fusion of the performances...

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In Lieu of the Supporting Actress Smackdown...

by Eric Blume

This too-short Oscar season has all of us firing on all cylinders here at The Film Experience, so sadly we can't engage in a full Supporting Actress Smackdown this week. (The series will return soon though)  In its absence, and to encourage hearing from all of you, Nathaniel has asked me to submit my personal Smackdown ballot and let the chips fall where they may...

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Best Actress / Supporting Actress - Chart Updates!

We fully expect Marriage Story to be nominated in all four acting categoriesBEST ACTRESS and BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS charts are now up. Strangely, this year doesn't feel as competitive as usual when it comes to these two categories. That said, given the lack of a wide field of wildly loved work, we're expecting some unexpected volatility to occur. If one of the early precursors throws a major curveball expect everyone else to follow suit if the field isn't inspiring them. 

We are starting to wonder if Lupita Nyong'o is closer to a nomination for Best Actress than we thought she'd be at this point. (She's great in Us but we assumed the genre trappings would hinder her... but is enthusiasm there for other performances the way it was earlier in the year for hers? That's a campaign strength right there if Universal goes for it.)