Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right
The Kids Are All Right became THE indie Summer movie and between the lots of raves that the movie earned, Annette Bening was one of the targets of the critics' praise. Seeing Annette Bening laying a member of a lesbian couple and a mum in a comedy may be something that we aren't used to see and this is the point of a possible Oscar nod and maybe win: she's doing something light, different from her character in American Beauty, for example. We can't forgive the Academy for never gave her a golden statue (she lost to Hillary Swank twice!), but this year, a nod is sure and a win is possible, definetly. Although Bening is overdue for a win, she didn't delivered the best performance of the year... to be completly honest, I think that Portman delivered the best one in Black Swan by far, while the other contenders are really close to Bening's if we are talking about quality (I'm not saying that Bening's performance isn't good, because it is really good indeed, but Portman is in other championship). Well, Bening is getting a lot of awards and nominations, taking home the Best Actress prize of the New York Film Critics Circle and being nominated for a Golden Globe, a SAG Award and a Critics' Choice Award, between a lot of critics' associations nods. Will she be nominated for The Kids Are All Right? Yes, she will! Will she win? I don't know... maybe...
Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole
Kidman is back in a highly praised movie with a lot of "emotional depht". Nicole's character is a mother who lives the saddest moments of her life due to her child's loss, a story about grief. In fact, Kidman's performances was described as something wonderful and as her career's best one, but this year the competition for the Oscar of Best Actress is strong and another win isn't possible at all for her (who won the prize some years ago for portraying Virginia Wolf in The Hours). Rabbit Hole may represent Nicole Kidman's return to critical sucess and the raves that her performance is currently getting may be seen as a Kidman's apologize for something that she never did but that made the media hate her (I think we will never discover the readon for the "media-hate-Kidman" fase). Nicole Kidman have been nominated for all the major awards, getting a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Award and a SAG Award nod, between a lot of nomination for critics associations' awards and her "debut" between the Independent Spirit Awards nominees. The Moulin Rouge! star can get her third Oscar nomination this year, and it would be just wonderful to put her career back on track!
Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone
So young (19), so pretty, so talented: Jennifer Lawrence is the golden girl of the year for her highly praised breakthough performance in the indie drama Winter's Bone, directed by Debra Granik. In fact, in the RT critics' consensus, you can read that "it (Winter's Bone) boasts an incredible, starmaking performance from Jennifer Lawrence" and the Academy loves young and beautiful actresses who had their big break on screen and that played strong women. She already worked with Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron in The Burning Plane and received a Venice Film Festival Award in order to honour how promising she is. Well, after so many raves, the awesome reception of the movie itself and the sucess that she (and the movie) have been between the awards (Lawrence was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Award a SAG Award and for a lot of critics associations' awards, winning a big couple of them and being named "breakthrough performance" by National Board of Review and "Most Promising Performer" by Chicago Film Critics Association). She is able to be one of the five actresses to be between the 5 winners of this year's Oscar race for Best Leading Actress.
Natalie Portman for Black Swan
Natalie Portman performance as Nina in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is giving her a lot of awards. In fact, Portman is simply "captivating" and great in what seems to me a really difficult role. She's the movie's main (if not the only) focus and she does her job really well and winning an Oscar would be totally worthy. She's nominated for a Golden Globe (which she will win, for sure), a Critics' Choice Award and a SAG Award and she won the OSFC Award of Best Actress recently, besides a lot of critics associations' awards. Will the Academy award her performance or will it award Bening's career? Portman deserves it, but Bening is a long time overdue actress... But I would vote for Natalie if I had chance too (she's prettier/sexier!...). There's nothing more to say about Portman... She simply deserves it (and she deserves to win)!
Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine
If we can call Ryan Gosling "Indie Prince", Michelle Williams would be an "Indie Princess". In fact, Blue Valentine reunite two of the best actors of their generation and both deliver two of the best performances of the year. Williams is in really contention for an Oscar nod after a highly praised reception of the movie and the raves her performance got. "Touching" may be the main word to describe Williams' performance and so is "perfect" - we can see two Cindy's (Williams' character), the young and sweet one and the sad woman which a marriage in the rocks. Such a depht performance gave Williams Golden Globe, Critics' Choice Award and critics associations' awards nominations, but the competition is really strong this year and she may not have a nomination guaranteed for being more than great in Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine. Noomi Rapace is also a strong contender, specially after being awarded with a Satellite Award and receiving a Critics' Choice Award for an iconic performance as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and she may "steal" Williams' place between the 5 Academy's chosen for the Oscar of Best Leading Actress (both Rapace and Williams deserve a place, but I'm sure that only one of them will get it!). Williams has good chances, but she may fail it, unfortunatly...
P.S.: There's also Lesley Manville, who may get a nod for Another Year instead of Rapace and Williams, but she has a category placement problem and I considered her as "Supporting Actress".
in serious consideration: Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
in consideration: Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right); Hillary Swank (Conviction);
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