Best Actress 2014: Judi Dench, Philomena

English export Steve Coogan first received wide exposure in Tropic Thunder and the Night at the Museum franchise, but initially built his reputation as a comic as well as writing, producing, and starring in TV series like I'm Alan Partridge (for which there is an upcoming film).  Lately, he has had an indie hit with The Trip, and just got solid reviews at Sundance for The Look of Love.  Along with Jeff Pope, they adapted Martin Sixsmith's biographical book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee about a gay man dying of AIDS (played by Coogan) searching for his Irish mother (Judi Dench), who was conned into giving him up for adoption and agreeing to never seek him out before joining a convent.  The crew includes cinematographer Robbie Ryan (Wuthering Heights, Fish Tank), production designer Alan MacDonald (The Queen, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), and costume designer Consolata Boyle (The Queen, The Iron Lady).  It doesn't hurt that the film was directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents, The Grifters, Dangerous Liaisons).  Having just wrapped filming in Ireland, London, and Maryland, the IMDb lists the film as a 2014 release.

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Re-Oscaring & Supporting Actress Winners

As I already covered previous lead winners, those who have won both acting Oscars (Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, Maggie Smith) or who have won the lead but may have a shot at supporting in their future (Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Kathy Bates) won't be covered here.  Though, with the consistent amount of industry love she has received over the course of her career, with her show Downton Abbey being one of the "it" series of late, a third Oscar for Smith in the next couple of years wouldn't surprise me.  Dianne Wiest, of course, is the modern benchmark in this category, specifically.  The character actress stealthily won hers eight years apart with a nomination in between.  She continues to work in both film and TV, even getting into the pre-release buzz recently for her role as Nicole Kidman's mother in Rabbit Hole.  A third Oscar doesn't seem possible, but I wouldn't rule another nomination somewhere down the line.  While anything can happen, what are the odds that a previous winner will make it back to the Dolby Theater, perhaps even on its stage after the envelop is opened?

Cate Blanchett winning again seems inevitable to me.  She may even eventually collect two more, though one will most definitely be for lead.  After taking home Oscar for her second nod, she went on to gather three more nominations in one calendar year.  She has this effortless ability to choose commercial prospects, while working with the best directors.  She has a tremendous amount of respect in the industry, all the while staying out of the tabloids while raising her three boys with her husband, who serves as co-artistic director with her for the Sydney Theatre Company.  Upcoming films include her participation in The Hobbit series, two Terrence Malick movies, as well as Woody Allen's latest project.  George Clooney will direct her in another World War II film.  She may join forces with Mia Wasikowska in a female-oriented film.  And Barbra Streisand (!) may direct her in the role of famed photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

Vanessa Redgrave is legend.  She has been nominated six times, having won supporting once over three decades ago for her title character Julia.  She hasn't been nominated since Howards End in 1992 (and as an old unsubstantiated rumor has it, she actually did win; see below).  Talk surfaced of possibly getting recognized for last year's Coriolanus, but nothing came of it.  She knows the importance of attaching herself to moneymakers to fuel more passionate projects, which makes me think that she'll be part of the Oscar conversation soon enough.  Next year, she'll appear in The Butler with her Julia costar Jane Fonda.  She'll also star in chilling, tragic Foxcatcher, the baity project that may result in Oscar talk for Steve Carell.

Oscar seems to love Judi Dench.  While they bypassed her for Helen Hunt her first nomination, they quickly made up to her one year later with a supporting trophy and then nominated her four more times.  With a reoccuring role in the Bond franchise, Dench has no intention of her macular degeneration stopping her from plowing forward with her craft.  My favorite performance of hers remains her last nominated role in 2006's Notes on a Scandal, which incidentally happens to be her ONLY nomination out of six, which didn't involve Harvey Weinstein.  It seems she is at least due for a nomination, but can she do it without WTC?  Can Fox Searchlight make it happen for her this year?

Rachel Weisz seems to be going down the road of Jennifer Connelly, but I have faith that she will gather her bearings and get back on track.  She is just way too talented and is probably in a bit of a lull, though some loved her in The Deep Blue Sea. I imagine she will at least make it into the leading category at some point.

Angelina Jolie is currently the biggest star on this list.  It doesn't seem like she will ever be "supporting" anything or anyone again, but her ability to pull a nomination in 2008 for Clint Eastwood's Changeling shows that the AMPAS have no regrets about handing her an Oscar over a decade ago when her star was on the rise.  Although, it's strange to me that they overlooked her the year before for A Mighty Heart, a better performance amongst less competition.

Is it because I see Marcia Gay Harden having a faint resemblance to Wiest that I place her so high up on this list?  She did win a Tony just three years ago.

Whether Angelica Huston is in film or TV, she always seems to be getting a mention for something.  She hit her stride in the mid-80s and kept her momentum going full-throttle for nearly a good decade.  Considering her integral role in the Smash series, she's clearly a force to be reckoned with.

There was that nasty urban legend that Jack Palance read the last name on the screen (Marisa Tomei) instead of the winner's name (Vanessa Redgrave in this instance), which Tomei and the AMPAS have managed to put to rest somewhat thanks to her involvement with In the Bedroom and The Wrestler and the nominations which resulted over the last twenty years.  (Was it too many push-ups on Palance's part?)

Aren't Penélope Cruz and Kim Basinger too beautiful to be rewarded an additional Oscar?  Still, Cruz now has three nominations.

Tilda Swinton's win will go down as one of those rare instances where the AMPAS actually made a cool decision by awarding the best artist in what was an undecided race.  I doubt she will ever win again, let along get nominated, if her mesmerizing performances in 2009 (Julia), 2010 (I Am Love), AND 2011 (We Need to Talk About Kevin), went ignored.  Hello.  We get it Academy, you're not interested in her and her win was a fluke.  But, we're glad it happened.  Juliette Binoche is another international star who doesn't seem like she can be bothered by the dog-and-pony show.  She genuinely thought she was going to lose to Lauren Bacall when she ended up taking the stage for a role that might as well have been a lead in The English Patient.

Renée Zellweger's Oscar felt like a consolation prize, "Now, go away, shoo!"  She went from awards circuit fixture to pariah.  After using up her good-will on the likes of Ron Howard and George Clooney, her rom-coms and Oscar-baiting failed to pan out commercially or critically.  After a long dry spell, suddenly, she's turning to directing.  Zellweger's former costar, the talented statuesque Catherine Zeta-Jones had accumulated her own set of hits before winning for Chicago.  She continued to attract A-list talent for a short while, before she started signing on to franchises she wasn't previously part of like Ocean's Twelve and Red 2.  Jennifer Connelly started to attract big talent right before she won for A Beautiful Mind.  It appeared her win would springboard her to leading lady status, but nothing stuck.  Still, she keeps herself pretty busy in features.

Mira Sorvino built her four subsequent years on her win, until Hollywood learned that audiences weren't going to just show up because she was an Oscar winner.  They still didn't know who she was, and it's not like everyone follows Woody Allen films.  To greater effect, Geena Davis used her win to catapult herself into hits like Thelma & Louse and A League of Their Own.  When she started running out of gas, she tried to reinvent herself as an action heroine.  Over the years, she has tried her hand at TV star. Look for her in 2013 in a film that was written and directed by Lake Bell, of all people.

Consider Yourself Rewarded

Melissa Leo fought tooth and nail for her Oscar.  "Consider" ... many probably have had enough of her off-screen.

Eclectic mix of character actors who were one-hit wonders with the awards circuit once upon a time when the stars aligned and never gained much traction with subsequent roles: Mary Steenburgen, Mercedes Ruehl.  There are those that just come and go like lightning flashes.  Brenda Fricker has a pretty low-key profile compared to the year when My Left Foot came out, although do you remember her as the bag lady in Home Alone 2?  Who knows what the future holds for Octavia Spencer, but I certainly didn't know who she was before The Help.  Singer Jennifer Hudson doesn't appear to be having a very good go at keeping her film career as relevant as the promise of Oscar might suggest.  The diminutive Linda Hunt has a very special set of skills that probably won't see her repeating a meeting with Oscar.

Consider Dancing with the Stars

Some legends have taken their Oscar to television and haven't looked back.  Cloris Leachman and Rita Moreno do quite well for themselves.  Why not Shirley Jones?  Screen legend Goldie Hawn is having a good time getting drunk in Paris, so she doesn't need to work on the small screen, or that silver one.  She needs not be bothered by Oscar.  Estelle Parsons managed an additional nomination a year after winning her Oscar, which comprised most of the extent of her industry recognition.  While she enjoyed a long reoccurring run for her bat-shit-crazy performance as Roseanne (and Jackie's) mother, she logs quite a bit of time on stage.

This category is a bastion for child actors who never quite develop the feature film career as an adult to match their head-start in movies.  Tatum O'Neil hasn't even had the good fortune Patty Duke and Anna Paquin have enjoyed in TV during various points in their life.

Consider Your Own Talk Show

Whoopi Goldberg is one of the few winners who had a commercial career both before and after her Oscar.  After her amazing debut in The Color Purple, she had a series of critical flops, which still made a dime at the box-office.  Her Oscar-winning role in Ghost would lead to the Sister Act movies that would keep her going well into the 90s before she spent all of her film capital on crappy material.  Right now, she looks content sharing the set of The View.  Mo'Nique, on the other hand, has her own talk show, thank you very much.

Eve Marie Saint is still kicking, but she hasn't been part of any awards talk since winning an Emmy over two decades ago.  Lee Grant took to directing, even appeared in Mulholland Dr., but I imagine she may have entirely all-together retired.  Dorothy Malone is done, having taken her final bow with a sly cameo in one of my favorites, Basic Instinct.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoyed this.

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