Oscars: There is Still No Best Actress Frontrunner

On 01.13.22 I wrote a piece asking, who is our Best Actress Oscar Frontrunner? Almost three weeks later, and we still don’t have an answer. Oh please, for the love of God, let’s not have Lady Gaga sneak in and take the trophy come Oscar night.

I’m getting vibes that it might be the direction SAG goes towards when they announce their Best Actress winner on February 27th: honouring Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Gaga. Whoever wins the SAG Actress trophy will also, consequentially, be the de facto frontrunner in the category.

Kristen Stewart was touted as a cinch to win the Oscar by pundits back when “Spencer” world premiered at Venice, TIFF and Telluride in early September. K-Stew ended up not even getting a SAG nom and now we’re all wondering if she can even squeeze her way into the final five come Oscar nominations time.

Right now, I have the narratives going this way:

Jennifer Hudson (Respect) has already won her Oscar and she’ll be lucky enough if she sneaks into the fifth spot instead of Stewart.

Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) has already won as well, and, although we can all agree she is fantastic in her film, “The Lost Daughter” is very divisive.

Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) won her Oscar in 2003 for “The Hours,” and her ‘Ricardos’ performance would not even crack her all-time top 10. She’s done much worthier work in a slew of better movies.

That leaves us with Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), one of the great actresses of the last 10 or so years. She’s due. The potential for a solid narrative is very much there. Even people who didn’t like ‘Tammy Faye’ have mentioned how great she is in the movie.

Chastain might be our frontrunner.

CONTENDERS:

Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
Lady Gaga (House of Gucci)
Nicole Kidman (Bring the Ricardos)
Jennifer Hudson (Respect)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)

SPOILERS:

Kristen Stewart (Spencer)
Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
Rachel Zegler (West Side Story)
Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)
Frances McDormand (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

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