[ For full episode catalogue please subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com/BestActress ] NEW EPISODE ALERT The year is 1975 and the nominees are: 1. Valerie Perrine - Lenny 2. Faye Dunaway - Chinatown 3. Gena Rowlands - A Woman Under the Influence 4. Ellen Burstyn - Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore 5. Diahann Carroll - Claudine - In 1975 Ellen Burstyn won the Best Actress Oscar for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. This was arguably one of the most competitive years in Best Actress...

[ For full episode catalogue please subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com/BestActress ] The year is 2012 and the nominees are: 1. Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn 2. Viola Davis - The Help 3. Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 4. Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady 5. Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs - In 2012 Meryl Streep won her third Oscar (second for Lead Actress) playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron lady. She swept award season with this performance. Weinstein’s angle...

[ For full episode catalogue please subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com/BestActress ] The year is 1970 and the nominees are: 1. Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 2. Genevieve Bujold - Anne of the Thousand Days 3. Jane Fonda - They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? 4. Liza Minnelli - The Sterile Cuckoo 5. Jean Simmons - The Happy Ending - In 1970 Maggie Smith won her first of two Oscars for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Smith plays an eccentric schoolteacher in a conservative...

[ For full episode catalogue please subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com/BestActress ] The year is 2005 and the nominees are: 1. Sophie Okonedo - Hotel Rwanda 2. Natalie Portman - Closer 3. Laura Linney - Kinsey 4. Cate Blanchett - The Aviator 5. Virginia Madsen - Sideways - In 2005 Cate Blanchett won her first Oscar for best actress in a supporting role portraying Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. This race really came down to her and Natalie Portman for Closer. Portman won the...

[ For full episode catalogue please subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com/BestActress ] The year is 1972 and the nominees are: 1. Glenda Jackson - Sunday Bloody Sunday 2. Jane Fonda - Klute 3. Janet Suzman - Nicholas and Alexandra 4. Vanessa Redgrave - Mary, Queen of Scots 5. Julie Christie - McCabe & Mrs. Miller - In 1972 Jane Fonda won her first Oscar for playing Bree Daniels, a New York prostitute, in the iconic thriller Klute (still don’t understand why it’s called Klute)....

The year is 2014 and the nominees are: 1. Lupita Nyong’o - 12 Years a Slave 2. June Squibb - Nebraska 3. Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine 4. Julia Roberts - August Osage County 5. Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle In 2014 Lupita Nyong’o walked away with an Oscar for her debut film role playing Patsy in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. It was a bit of a nail biter that evening as Lawrence had won almost every supporting trophy leading up to that night. Jennifer Lawrence had previously...

The year is 1993 and the nominees are: 1. Susan Sarandon - Lorenzo’s Oil 2. Emma Thompson - Howards End 3. Michelle Pfeiffer - Love Field 4. Catherine Deneuve - Indochine 5. Mary McDonnell - Passion Fish - In 1993 Emma Thompson was nominated for, and won, every single competitive acting award for Howards End. If you’ve listened to this podcast before you know how much this movie bored me. This will shock and amaze you but I have become a Howards End enthusiast after this episode. Other...

The year is 2017 and the nominees are: 1. Isabelle Huppert - Elle 2. Emma Stone - La La Land 3. Ruth Negga - Loving 4. Natalie Portman - Jackie 5. Meryl Streep - Florence Foster Jenkins In 2017 Emma Stone took home the Oscar for Moonlight-sorry-La La Land! It was a pretty stacked year with very heavy performances. Natalie Portman played Jackie O navigating the emotional trauma of watching her husband be murdered right in front of her. Isabelle Huppert plays a rape victim while also...

The year is 1982 and the nominees are: 1. Katharine Hepburn - On Golden Pond 2. Susan Sarandon - Atlantic City 3. Marsha Mason - Only When I Laugh 4. Diane Keaton - Reds 5. Meryl Streep - The French Lieutenant’s Woman - In 1982 Katharine Hepburn became the first (and still only) actor to have 4 Academy Awards for a performance by an actor in a lead role. As Ethel in On Golden Pond she plays the wife/mother of the Fondas (Henry and Jane) in an emotional driven story about family and...

The year is 1986 and the nominees are: 1. Whoopi Goldberg - The Color Purple 2. Meryl Streep - Out of Africa 3. Jessica Lange - Sweet Dreams 4. Geraldine Page - The Trip to Bountiful 5. Anne Bancroft - Agnes of God - In 1986 Geraldine Page finally won her Oscar after being nominated 8 times over the course of 3 decades (similar to Glenn Close - 8 nominations over the course of 4 decades). When she won she was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. The industry felt she was...

The year is 2004 and the nominees are: 1. Keisha Castle-Hughes - Whale Rider 2. Naomi Watts - 21 Grams 3. Diane Keaton - Something’s Gotta Give 4. Charlize Theron - Monster 5. Samantha Morton - In America - In 2004 Charlize Theron received her first Oscar nomination and win for playing Aileen Wuornos who was a prostitute and serial killer. This haunting performance remains one of the best in Oscar history (IMO). This was a very strong year with very diverse performances each brilliant in...

The year is 2003 and the nominees are: 1. Salma Hayek - Frida 2. Nicole Kidman - The Hours 3. Renée Zellweger - Chicago 4. Julianne Moore - Far from Heaven 5. Diane Lane - Unfaithful - In 2003 Nicole Kidman won her Oscar “…by a nose” for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours. With only 28 minutes of screen time Kidman had the least amount of time in front of the camera compared to her costars (Streep had 42 min and Moore had 33 min) but Miramax wanted to put her forward as lead as to not...

The year is 2009 and the nominees are: 1. Melissa Leo - Frozen River 2. Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married 3. Angelina Jolie - Changeling 4. Meryl Streep - Doubt 5. Kate Winslet - The Reader - In 2009 Kate Winslet FINALLY won her Oscar for The Reader (I say FINALLY because by the time she won she should have already had at least 1 Oscar (probably for Sense & Sensibility or The Tanic’)). Originally Winslet wanted to go supporting for The Reader and lead for Revolutionary Road but...

NEW EPISODE ALERT The year is 2015 and the nominees are: 1. Emma Stone - Birdman 2. Patricia Arquette - Boyhood 3. Meryl Streep - Into the Woods 4. Laura Dern - Wild 5. Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game In 2015 Patricia Arquette won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood, a coming-of-age drama that the director spent twelve years making. Arquette plays Olivia the mother of Mason (the character whom the story is about) who struggles at various times financially and as a...

The year is 1994 and the nominees are: 1. Angela Bassett - What’s Love Got to Do with It 2. Holly Hunter - The Piano 3. Emma Thompson - The Remains of the Day 4. Debra Winger - Shadowlands 5. Stockard Channing - Six Degrees of Separation In 1994 Holly Hunter won the Best Actress Oscar for The Piano directed by Jane Campion. This was the first time a female director was nominated for Best Director for directing a Best Picture nominee. Hunter plays a mute Scottish woman who uses her...

The year is 1960 and the nominees are: 1. Katherine Hepburn - Suddenly, Last Summer 2. Elizabeth Taylor - Suddenly, Last Summer 3. Doris Day - Pillow Talk 4. Audrey Hepburn - The Nun’s Story 5. Simone Signoret - Room at the Top In 1960 Simone Signoret became the second French actress (the first was Claudette Colbert) to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for a British film, Room at the Top. This was one of the first British films to openly depict adultery and suggest sex was...

The year is 1995 and the nominees are: 1. Jodie Foster - Nell 2. Miranda Richardson - Tom & Viv 3. Susan Sarandon - The Client 4. Winona Ryder - Little Women 5. Jessica Lange - Blue Sky In 1995 Jessica Lange won her second Oscar for Blue Sky playing the wife of a nuclear engineer living on a military base who eventually becomes part of a cover-up. This year is regarded as one of the most “meh” years in Oscar history for Best Actress - mostly due to the fact that the roles for women...

The year is 1983 and the nominees are: 1. Julie Andrews - Victor/Victoria 2. Jessica Lange - Frances 3. Sissy Spacek - Missing 4. Meryl Streep - Sophie’s Choice 5. Debra Winger - An Officer and a Gentleman In 1983 Meryl Streep won her second Oscar for a performance that is regarded as one of the greatest of all time in Sophie’s Choice. Streep plays a Polish woman who survives the holocaust because she speaks German, French, English, and becomes an asset to the Nazi’s. Her biggest...

The year is 1981 and the nominees are: 1. Gena Rowlands - Gloria 2. Goldie Hawn - Private Benjamin 3. Mary Tyler Moore - Ordinary People 4. Ellen Burstyn - Resurrection 5. Sissy Spacek - Coal Miner’s Daughter - In 1981 Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Academy Award for Coal Miner’s Daughter playing country music legend, Loretta Lynn. This was one of the 4 roles that Meryl Streep was turned down for. Up until this point, it wasn’t common for actors to win Oscars playing real people (as...

The year is 2019 and the nominees are: 1. Lady Gaga - A Star is Born 2. Melissa McCarthy - Can You Ever Forgive Me? 3. Olivia Coleman - The Favourite 4. Yalitza Aparicio 5. Glenn Close - The Wife - In 2019 Olivia Coleman won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Favourite. Glenn-always-so-Close was the favourite to win for The Wife and her campaign narrative was basically, ‘it’s about time we give her her Oscar.’ She was visibly disappointed by Coleman’s win in the...

The year is 1989 and the nominees are: 1. Sigourney Weaver- Working Girl 2. Joan Cusack - Working Girl 3. Frances McDormand - Mississippi Burning 4. Michelle Pfeiffer - Dangerous Liaisons 5. Geena Davis - The Accidental Tourist In 1989 Geena Davis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Accidental Tourist. This film is not as well known as the rest of her work (comparatively speaking). Leading up to the Oscars Davis did not receive nominations from any other award...

The year is 2018 and the nominees are: 1. Sally Hawkins - The Shape of Water 2. Meryl Streep - The Post 3. Frances McDormand - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 4. Margot Robbie - I, Tonya 5. Saoirse Ronan - Lady Bird In 2018 Frances McDormand won her second of three Academy Awards for Best Actress for the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It was her husband Joel Coen who convinced her to take the role. She protested the gig because she felt her character from...

The year is 1991 and the nominees are: 1. Kathy Bates - Misery 2. Anjelica Huston - The Grifters 3. Meryl Streep - Postcards from the Edge 4. Julia Roberts - Pretty Woman 5. Joanne Woodward - Mr. & Mrs. Bridge In 1991 Kathy Bathes won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her iconic performance as Annie Wilkes - Steven King’s favourite character he’s ever written. King was so impressed with her performance he wrote Dolores Claiborne with her in mind and re-wrote character Ray...

The year is 1941 and the nominees are: 1. Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle 2. Bette Davis - The Letter 3. Katharine Hepburn - The Philadelphia Story 4. Martha Scott - Our Town 5. Joan Fontaine - Rebecca In 1941 Ginger Rogers won her first and only Oscar for Kitty Foyle. Up to that point in her career she was known as a musical/rom-com actress and of course dance partner to Fred Astaire. We’ve discussed these types of wins before with Reese Witherspoon and Sandra Bullock. This was a very...

The year is 2006 and the nominees are: 1. Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line 2. Felicity Huffman - Transamerica 3. Charlize Theron - North Country 4. Judi Dench - Mrs Henderson Presents 5. Keira Knightley - Pride & Prejudice In 2006 Reese Witherspoon won the Oscar for Best Actress for playing June Carter-Cash in the Johnny Cash bio pic, Walk the Line. Many people compare this win to Julia Roberts in that they don’t understand how she swept the award circuit for this role. I have...