Oscars: Will this year’s Best Actress lineup include any lone nominees?

Matthew Stewart
·4 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Of the 272 films that have earned lone acting Oscar nominations – meaning they were each recognized in one performance category and nowhere else – a whopping 101 (or 37.1%) accomplished the feat thanks to lead actresses. Whereas just 60 examples have occurred in the Best Actor category, the corresponding female one reached that benchmark in 1991 and is on track to double it less than two decades from now. Its triple digit total has now been intact for one full year, having directly resulted from the simultaneous nominations of Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) and Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”).

Although an Oscar bid was generally expected to follow de Armas’s 2023 BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award nominations, Riseborough very memorably came out of nowhere, having defied precedent by benefiting from an enthusiastic grassroots campaign. While most of the earlier lone Best Actress contenders belong in de Armas’s camp, many align with Riseborough in having pulled off major surprises.

More from GoldDerby

Although this category’s roster of lone nominees has grown by 13 within the last decade alone, there have been several years in which no entrants were added, such as 2020, 2018, and 2014. Before 2023, the last time two actresses joined the club at once was 2021, when Andra Day and Vanessa Kirby were respectively recognized for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” and “Pieces of a Woman.”

The record for most lone Best Actress bids in one year is four, but both instances of that total being reached (1930 and 1936) occurred before the category’s annual limit of five nominees was established (those lineups included seven and six performances, respectively). There have been six sets of three loners over the years, the last of which consisted of 2015 contenders Marion Cotillard (“Two Days, One Night”), Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”), and Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”).

Moore’s victory for “Still Alice” gives her the overall distinction of being the most recent acting Oscar champion to profit from a lone nomination and makes her the lucky 13th lead female to ever triumph that way. Among the dozen actresses who preceded her are six of the category’s first eight winners: Janet Gaynor (“Street Angel,” 1929), Mary Pickford (“Coquette,” 1930), Marie Dressler (“Min and Bill,” 1931), Helen Hayes (“The Sin of Madelon Claudet,” 1932), Katharine Hepburn (“Morning Glory,” 1934), and Bette Davis (“Dangerous,” 1936). They were then followed in order by Joanne Woodward (“The Three Faces of Eve,” 1958), Sophia Loren (“Two Women,” 1962), Jodie Foster (“The Accused,” 1989), Kathy Bates (“Misery,” 1991), Jessica Lange (“Blue Sky,” 1995), and Charlize Theron (“Monster,” 2004).

Lange’s fruitful 1995 bid made her the first performer (regardless of gender or category) to compete as a lone nominee four times. She had previously earned unaccompanied Best Actress notices for “Country” (1985), “Sweet Dreams” (1986), and “Music Box” (1990), thus making her debut bid for “Frances” (1983) her only non-lone one in the category. After nearly three decades, only Meryl Streep has joined her in racking up four lone nominations, which she received for her star turns in “A Cry in the Dark” (1989), “The Bridges of Madison County” (1996), “One True Thing” (1999), and “Julie & Julia” (2010).

Heading into this year’s Oscar nominations announcement, Gold Derby’s official odds indicate that there will be no new lone Best Actress contenders, although Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“Origin,” 10th place) has the potential to achieve a Riseborough-esque upset and Cailee Spaeny (“Priscilla,” 11th) could benefit from her status as a 2024 Golden Globe nominee.

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

SIGN UP for Gold Derby newsletters and updates

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.