In 2020 – for the first time in seven years – the Best Supporting Actress Oscar category saw a lone nomination, meaning that a film was recognized there and nowhere else. This achievement is attributed to Kathy Bates (“Richard Jewell”), who competed for no major precursors except the Golden Globe but still managed to bump Critics Choice, SAG, and Globe nominee Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”). Perhaps unsurprisingly given the length of the streak she broke, there has yet to be a lone contender in any of her category’s subsequent lineups.
Since the introduction of the two gendered supporting Oscars in 1937, there have been 57 female lone nominees and 54 male ones, with over half of the entrants on the former roster having been added before 1977. The one who directly preceded Bates was Helen Hunt (“The Sessions,” 2013), whose inclusion in her lineup was much more heavily predicted. Coincidentally, both women had the perceived advantage of being former Best Actress champions, with Bates’s victory having come for “Misery” (1991) and Hunt’s for “As Good As It Gets” (1998).
The last time multiple supporting actresses received lone nominations at once was in 2008, when Cate Blanchett (“I’m Not There”) and Amy Ryan (“Gone Baby Gone”) both challenged eventual winner Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”). The category’s record for most lone bids in a single year is three, as set in 1972 and matched in 1988. The first trio consisted of Ann-Margret (“Carnal Knowledge”), Barbara Harris (“Who Is Harry Kellerman?”), and Margaret Leighton (“The Go-Between”), while the second included Norma Aleandro (“Gaby: A True Story”), Anne Ramsey (“Throw Momma from the Train”), and Ann Sothern (“The Whales of August”). The victors in those respective cases were Cloris Leachman (“The Last Picture Show”) and Olympia Dukakis (“Moonstruck”), both of whose films were nominated for Best Picture.
To date, a total of eight lone supporting female nominations have resulted in wins, starting with Mary Astor’s for “The Great Lie” in 1942. She was followed in order by Claire Trevor (“Key Largo,” 1949), Margaret Rutherford (“The V.I.P.s,” 1964), Goldie Hawn (“Cactus Flower,” 1970), Linda Hunt (“The Year of Living Dangerously,” 1984), Marisa Tomei (“My Cousin Vinny,” 1993), Angelina Jolie (“Girl, Interrupted,” 2000), and Penélope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” 2009). Most of these women stood as the only loners in their lineups, but Hawn and Tomei were respectively joined in that regard by Catherine Burns (“Last Summer”) and Miranda Richardson (“Damage”).
In 1948, Ethel Barrymore set an impressive precedent as the first performer to compete as a loner for either supporting Oscar on more than one occasion thanks to her back-to-back bids for “The Spiral Staircase” and “The Paradine Case.” She has since been followed by just three others women: Marjorie Rambeau (“Primrose Path,” 1941; “Torch Song,” 1954), Thelma Ritter (“The Mating Season,” 1952; “Pickup on South Street,” 1954), and Geraldine Page (“You’re a Big Boy Now,” 1967; “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” 1985).
It just so happens that Cruz – a current SAG Award nominee for “Ferrari” and holder of the sixth place position in Gold Derby’s 2024 Best Supporting Actress Oscar race – has the potential to join said group of two-time lone contenders very soon. Indeed, assuming a loner will show up somewhere this year (as has been the case 90 out of 95 times), Best Supporting Actress is generally viewed as the place for it, given Jodie Foster’s status as an officially predicted nominee for “Nyad,” which is expected to be overlooked elsewhere. However, we could very well be headed for a rare loner-free year, as we last experienced in 2014.
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