This year’s Academy Awards heat up as nine women, ranging from sexy young first-time nominees to a seasoned veteran looking at her 13th nomination, compete for the coveted Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress trophies in what promises to be two of the closest Oscar races in recent memory.
In the leading category, the nominees are Salma Hayek for “Frida,” Nicole Kidman for “The Hours,” Renee Zellweger for “Chicago,” Diane Lane for “Unfaithful” and Julianne Moore for “Far From Heaven.” Moore is also nominated in the supporting category for “The Hours” and is accompanied there by Kathy Bates for “About Schmidt,” Queen Latifah for “Chicago,” Meryl Streep for “Adaptation” and Catherine Zeta-Jones for “Chicago.”
Symbolic of Hollywood’s new crop of leading ladies, none of the Best Actress nominees have ever walked home winners before. In fact, for Lane and Hayek, this is their first nomination, and Kidman and Zellweger just received their first nods a year ago. This means that Moore, whose breakthrough film, “Boogie Nights,” is barely five years old, is the Oscar veteran of the group with four career nominations.
In the supporting category, however, Moore is a baby compared to Streep, who won her first Oscar nearly 25 years ago. Bates also brings serious experience to the group, having picked up a win for 1991’s “Misery.” Zeta-Jones and Latifah are both rookies by all accounts, although Zeta-Jones’s husband, Michael Douglas, did deliver an acceptance speech back in 1976 when he produced the Best Picture, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” It is doubtful that Zeta-Jones remembers that, however — she was seven years old at the time.
The precursor awards have been relatively inconsistent in these categories. Zellweger and Streep won the Golden Globes, although Zellweger has failed to garner even nominations from most of the critics’ groups, and Streep has been short on wins from the same organizations.
Miramax, the studio noted for its not necessarily ethical but highly effective Oscar-buying techniques, is backing Zellweger and Hayek for the lead award and Zeta-Jones and Latifah for the supporting honor, all for their roles in “Chicago” except for Hayek’s in “Frida.” It appears likely that supporters of “Chicago,” which garnered more nominations than any other, may end up splitting their votes between Zeta-Jones and Latifah, a move that could deprive them both of Supporting Actress honors.
Moore may suffer a similar fate if her supporters have trouble voting for her twice and resultantly split their votes between her two nominations. However, she has gained far more note for her lead role in “Far From Heaven.”
Recent history shows that when director Steven Soderbergh found himself in an even tighter squeeze being nominated twice for the same award, Best Director, he still managed to walk away a winner as voters recognized “Traffic” as a generally more notable directorial achievement than “Erin Brockovich.”
Halle Berry became the first black woman to win an Academy Award for Best Leading Actress when she took home honors for “Monster’s Ball” last year. Given Latifah’s lack of experience and failure to obtain any serious precursor wins, it seems unlikely that the Academy will bestow honors upon her, this year’s only black actress nominee.
If Latifah is to falter while still splitting votes with Zeta-Jones, and Moore might possibly cancel herself out, that leaves Bates and Streep in the Supporting Actress category. Both are previous winners and both have garnered note for countless roles over their time, but look for Bates to walk home a winner since her film, “About Schmidt,” is the more publicized of the two works.
As for the lead category, it appears that only Moore is really out of the race. However, Hayek’s film, “Frida” was even less exposed than Streep’s “Adaptation.” In an era of politics and gossip, it seems unlikely that the Academy would bestow honors upon Kidman before her more accomplished and oft-snubbed former husband, Tom Cruise.
That leaves a virtual toss-up between Zellweger and Lane. Zellweger came onto the scene with 1995’s “Jerry Maguire” (starring Kidman’s ex) and has followed it up with highly acclaimed performances in “Nurse Betty” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”
Lane emerged in 1979, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier at the tender age of 13 in “A Little Romance.” But Lane faltered afterwards and really only made an A-List bid once again in the late 1990’s with “The Perfect Storm” and “A Walk on the Moon.” Between her more generally admired career and her being part of a film anticipated to dominate the ceremony, look for Zellweger to edge out Lane and walk home a winner.
