While the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is often awarded to an ingenue, like the 2022 winner Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”), it can also be a way to reward a more seasoned performer. In 2024, Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Leftovers”) won on her first nomination A year earlier Jamie Lee Curtis had reaped her first Oscar bid at age 64 and prevailed for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” In 2021 Youn Yuh-jung, who is renowned in her native South Korea, won at age 73 for her first English film, “Minari.” And in 2020, the academy honored past nominee Laura Dern who finally took home an Oscar for her scene-stealing performance in “Marriage Story.” (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Supporting Actress.)
While Dern was clearly a featured player in her picture, two of her rival nominees, Florence Pugh and Margot Robbie, could easily have submitted themselves in lead for their roles in “Little Women” and “Bombshell” respectively. But the studios decided to campaign only their co-stars, Saoirse Ronan and Charlize Theron, in the top race and this proved to be a winning strategy as all four reaped bids.
In 2019, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz could have contended in lead for their roles in “The Favourite” but got out of the way of their co-star, Olivia Colman, who bagged the Best Actress Oscar. Stone and Weisz were both Oscar winners already with the former prevailing in lead for “La La Land” in 2017 and the latter taking home this award in 2006 for “The Constant Gardener.”
Weisz was the de facto leading lady in her winning film as were other such recent Best Supporting Actress champs as Regina King (” If Beale Street Could Talk,” 2019); Viola Davis (“Fences,” 2017); Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl,” 2016) and Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood,” 2015).
Voters like doubling up in this category with a whopping three dozen films reaping multiple Best Supporting Actress bids including “Gone With the Wind” (Olivia de Havilland and winner Hattie McDaniel), “Kramer vs. Kramer” (Jane Alexander and winner Meryl Streep), “Chicago,” (Queen Latifah and winner Catherine Zeta-Jones), “The Fighter” (Adams and winner Melissa Leo), “The Help” (Jessica Chastain and winner Octavia Spencer), “The Favourite” (Stone and Weisz), and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Stephanie Hsu and winner Lee-Curtis). “Tom Jones” actually clocked three nominations in this category with Diane Cilento, Edith Evans, and Joyce Redman all receiving citations.
When Stone first won Best Actress, she became the 32nd winner to be in her 20s when picking up this prize. By comparison, only 17 of the Supporting Actress winners have been under 30. Conversely, just two Best Actress victors have been in their 50s while it is eight for supporting, including Dern and Allison Janney (“I, Tonya,” 2018).
While 34 of the Best Actress winners were thirtysomething, this is true of just 28 of the supporting actress champs. However, only 16 of the Best Actress winners have been in their 40s compared to 24 of the supporting ones (both Colman and King number among these).
Six of the Best Actress winners were in their 60s (Katharine Hepburn won twice at that age) as were five in Supporting Actress. Hepburn is also the only Best Actress winner to be in her 70s while six women of this age have done so in supporting. Jessica Tandy was the lone champ in her 80s, having hit that milestone almost a year before she won Best Actress for “Driving Miss Daisy” in 1990.
Only two actresses have won this race twice: Shelley Winters (“The Diary of Anne Frank,” “A Patch of Blue”) and Dianne Wiest (“Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Bullets Over Broadway”). Thelma Ritter holds the record for most Oscar nominations in this category with six while Amy Adams is close behind with five. Unfortunately for both of those actresses, neither turned any of those bids into a win.
Please note: To read full descriptions of each film, check out our 2025 Oscars Best Picture predictions. Category placement remains in question for several of these contenders who could be positioned in Best Actress.
UPDATED: July 11, 2023
LEADING CONTENDERS
Toni Collette, “Juror #2” (Warner Bros.)
Danielle Deadwyler, “The Piano Lesson” (Netflix)
Selena Gomez, “Emilia Pérez (Pathé)
Aunjanie Ellis-Taylor, “Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Julianne Moore, “The Room Next Door” (Warner Bros.)
Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave” (Focus Features)
Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez” (Pathé)
Michelle Yeoh, “Wicked” (Universal)
STRONG CONTENDERS
Joan Chen, “Didi” (Focus Features)
Zoe Chao, “Nightbitch” (Searchlight)
Carrie Coon, “His Three Daughters” (Netflix)
Rebecca Ferguson, “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
Erin Kellyman, “Blitz” (Apple TV+)
Connie Nielson, “Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures)
Elizabeth Olsen, “His Three Daughters” (Netflix)
Cailee Spaeny, “Civil War” (A24)
Emily Watson, “Small Things Like These” (Lionsgate)
POSSIBLE CONTENDERS
Hong Chau, “Kinds of Kindness” (Searchlight)
Jennifer Lopez, “Unstoppable” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Catherine Keener, “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.)
Margaret Qualley, “Kinds of Kindness” (Searchlight)
Margaret Qualley, “The Substance” (Mubi)
Kelly Reilly, “Here” (Sony Pictures)
Renate Reinsve, “A Different Man” (A24)
Zendaya, “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
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