Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I saw all of these films a long time ago, but I'll give this a shot. 1. Helen Mirren 2. Maggie Smith 3. Kate Winslet 4. Jennifer Connelly 5. Marisa Tomei I'm not one who believes that Tomei's win was a fluke - I thought she was very funny - but here I found her attempts at dry family drama brittle, ...

1. Catherine Zeta-Jones 2. Meryl Streep 3. Julianne Moore 4. Queen Latifah 5. Kathy Bates I hate Kathy Bates. There - I said it, but despite my own feelings towards her acting it baffles me that anyone could find her broad, grotesque cameo in About Schmidt worthy of Oscar consideration or that anyon...

1. Kate Hudson 2. Marcia Gay Harden 3. Judi Dench 4. Frances McDormand 5. Julie Walters I don't remember Walters being anything too special. I last saw the film about five years ago, however. I recall she was funny but reeking of effort as usual. McDormand is an odd duck here, playing her comedic sc...

1. Patricia Clarkson 2. Renée Zellweger 3. Shohreh Aghdashloo 4. Marcia Gay Harden 5. Holly Hunter This is a pretty solid lineup. I'm not on the Zellweger hate train here. Clarkson wins for me. Some of the tics that prejudice me against some of her performances (she's like a slightly looser, more ve...

1. Judi Dench 2. Penélope Cruz 3. Helen Mirren 4. Kate Winslet 5. Meryl Streep Dench is tops for me. A camp classic after only a few years in existence, but Dench grounds her character's shenanigans in real need. It is surprising revisiting this film and seeing how deep she dug here. I'm not general...

1. Persona (Bergman)
2. L'avventura (Antonioni)
3. Au hasard Balthazar (Bresson)
4. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
5. Death by Hanging (Oshima)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
7. Pierrot le fou (Godard)
8. The Silence (Bergman)
9. Branded to Kill (Suzuki)
10. The Swimmer (Perry)

Barraza winning over Kikuchi is a travesty, and I like both performances. Of the nominees: 1. Rinko Kikuchi 2. Adriana Barraza 3. Abigail Breslin 4. Jennifer Hudson 5. Cate Blanchett Kikuchi is revelatory here. The sexual frankness of the role is its most eye-catching aspect and probably what brough...

1. Minnie Driver 2. Julianne Moore 3. Gloria Stuart 4. Joan Cusack 5. Kim Basinger This is an incredibly weak lineup for me. Minnie Driver wins for an acceptable performance that glows in comparison to the other contenders. She has a fairly typical 'girlfriend' role but she brings unexpected dimensi...

This is a pretty strong lineup. I'd rank them thusly: 1. Catherine Burns 2. Dyan Cannon 3. Goldie Hawn 4. Susannah York 5. Sylvia Miles Catherine Burns' nomination is one of the coolest things Oscar has done. And for such a great, piquant little film, too. Her character could have been a mess of neu...

Thelma Ritter, easily. It deserves the hype, and I don't think the role is sentimental at all - or at least its scenes with the greatest potential for sap skilfully avoid it. She's very funny early on, establishing Moe's front and mechanisms for dealing with city life, but when she has her final sce...

I've seen all five of these performances. Sandy Dennis' performance here is powerful, almost overwhelming. She tears into the role in a way that seems uncontrolled at first but eventually reveals itself to be quite clever, honing on on the ways in which Honey plays George & Martha's 'games' and ...