Best Actress 2013: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen has put out one film every year since Annie Hall ... which came out in 1977.  That's thirty-five films in thirty-five years.  And many of them great to not half-bad.  Incredible, right?  A few years ago, he stepped up his game by leaving New York City and venturing elsewhere for different backdrops for his stories.  He has paid cinematic visits to London, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, and, now, with his latest, Blue Jasmine, his first American sojourn outside NYC to San Francisco.  Little is known about the plot other than a fashionable New York housewife (presumably played by Cate Blanchett) undergoes a crisis and finds herself living with her sister (presumably played by Sally Hawkins, having previously appeared in Cassandra's Dream) in San Francisco.  Either or both Blanchett and Hawkins are leads.  Allen hasn't earned a leading actress nod in any of his films since the 1970s, though he has collected a series of supporting.  Hawkins narrowly missed out on a nomination in 2008, having won the Golden Globe (Comedy) for Happy-go-lucky.  Blanchett has five nods under her belt, as well as one win.  Having earned four nominations from 2004 - 2007, she hasn't been nominated since, though she was also on the radar in 2008.  Jasmine's eclectic cast includes Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, and Michael Stuhlbarg.  Helen Robin, who has been with Allen since Another Woman, is producing.  Production Designer Santo Loquasto has been with Allen just as long, having started as a costume designer on some of Allen's earlier films including Stardust Memories.  Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe previously worked with Allen on Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  Sony Pictures Classics is distributing.

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