It’s finally here! Of all the awards given out every year for movies, this is the big one. The one we place bets on. The one where we compete against friends and family to see if our choices match those of the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Kimberly C has already done an amazing job covering the most of the nominations, particularly looking at Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. So let’s now take a look at the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories.
Best Actress
Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night) and Reese Witherspoon (Wild) – This is the second Oscar nomination for each of these actresses. Each won for her first nomination portraying a real-life singer. Cotillard won for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Witherspoon won for playing June Carter in Ring of Fire. Their current nominated roles are more down-to-earth, with Cotillard playing a working-class woman desperate to hang onto her job in Two Days, One Night and Witherspoon portraying a woman trying to heal and find peace after the death of her mother in Wild.
Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) – British Jones and Pike are both first time nominees – who also received BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild nominations. Although both actresses have worked for years on television and in various movies, these movies have provided breakout roles for them. Jones portrays the wife of renowned scientist Stephen Hawking in the story of their courtship and marriage in The Theory of Everything. In Gone Girl, Pike plays a woman whose disappearance leads her husband to question just how well he knows his wife.
Julianne Moore (Still Alice) – This is Moore’s third Oscar nomination for lead actress nomination. She also has two nomination for supporting roles. Throughout her career, she’s turned in one amazing performance after another on television and in movies, playing both comedy and drama. In Still Alice, as a woman confronted with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease, Moore has already won the BAFTA, GG, and SAG Awards and is nominated for the Independent Spirit Award. She’s definitely the odds-on favorite to win the Oscar this year.
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) and Emma Stone (Birdman) – This is the first Academy Award nomination for both Arquette and Stone, adding to nominations for BAFTA, GG, SAG, and Spirit awards. As a single mother in Boyhood, Arquette dedicated 12 years to the making of the film, finding the challenge of taking a character through so long to be exciting. In Birdman, Stone plays a recovering drug addict who acts as assistant to her actor father, a man trying to reinvent his career. Although both actresses are standouts in their roles, Arquette is the favorite to add an Oscar to a mantel already crowded with awards from BAFTA, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild.
Laura Dern (Wild) and Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game) – Both Dern and Knightley have been previously nominated for leading roles, and these are their first nominations in supporting roles. In Wild, Dern plays Bobbi, a strong woman whose passing leads to her daughter’s search for answers and a fresh beginning. In the World War II drama The Imitation Game, Knightley portrays a young woman who becomes part of a team of people looking to break the code used by the Nazis – and finds lasting friendship with the leader Alan Turing.
Meryl Streep (Into the Woods) – No actor or actress has come close to the number of Oscar nominations of Streep. This is her fourth nomination in a supporting role. She has fifteen previous leading role nominations. Although classically trained in singing, Into the Woods is one of the few musicals that she’s done. Although a great favorite of the Academy, Streep is not favored to win this year – but it is an honor just to be nominated – even for the nineteenth time.
So, who is your pick in each category? Tune in Sunday night to find out if your favorite wins!
Although we have only a few of the nominated titles right now, be sure to check back often in our catalog for when they become available for requests. And you can click on each name above for a link to our catalog and other movies featuring these talented women.
Flickr: CC : Oscars Academy Awards Photo by Rachel
