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Best Actress 2022 – The Standouts in a Competitive Year




There have been breathtaking performances by actresses this year. There have been so many it’s hard to choose just five. The ones that stood out, to me, did so because they gave us characters we’ve never seen before. Some of the films revolved around them, some did not. The ones that have stayed with me aren’t necessarily the ones who will end up in Oscar’s final five. I know how the Oscar game is played, and I know what performances stirred me the most. These two things are not the same.To get more news about 国产三级视频在线观看, you can visit our official website.

The year started out with Jennifer Hudson’s performance as Aretha Franklin being held over from 2020. With Andra Day as Billie Holiday and Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, it was already a crowded field of iconic singers. When Respect finally did open to qualify for this year, it was a bit early for the hype of Oscar season. And though audiences dug the movie, critics were lukewarm on it.What impressed me the most about Hudson’s work is her transformation from a naive teenager obedient to her father to becoming wholly her own person — an activist not afraid to use her voice for civil rights or to march alongside Martin Luther King, Jr.. Hudson knew Franklin personally and was hand-picked to play her in Franklin’s life story. Yeah, no big deal, right? Just the Queen of Soul’s personal request.

In my humble opinion, it’s Oscar malpractice not to nominate her. Maybe it’s been hard for members of the awards community to respect Hudson’s Respect because it isn’t a story of victimization. Holiday, Ma Rainey, even Tessa Thompson in Passing are characters who exist in an oppressive atmosphere. While Franklin did exist there too, she navigated White America fairly well. She fit into the mold of what they wanted her to be — but eventually broke free from that, rebelled against it, and found her own personal journey of success. That is not nothing. It might not be the kind of character that wins Oscars: after all, Halle Berry’s character in Monster’s Ball was down on her luck, not exactly playing one of the most admired and successful black women in America like Hudson is. Perhaps for the mostly white critics, it’s hard to sit with such a successful black woman on film? Yeah, I’m pulling out all the stops on this post because we’re getting down to the wire. I know they’ll chafe at that, but just throwing it out there as food for thought.

It isn’t just black successful women critics seem to have a hard time with. Nicole Kidman also plays a superstar firebrand in Being the Ricardos. Probably if she was playing Lucille Ball when her life was falling apart and she wasn’t rallying to be the badass she actually was, she might find a place in this year’s race. I think that, personally, stronger women might be a slightly harder sell, even if it does run counter to the going ideology.

Last year was incredibly strange in how Best Actress ultimately went down. Everyone had their eyes on non-white winners taking the top prize. That was the mindset throughout not just awards season, but all of America (and to a degree, it still is, Hudson notwithstanding). That meant that Andra Day won the Golden Globe for her work as Billie Holiday, Viola Davis won the SAG for her work as Ma Rainey, and… Frances McDormand won the BAFTA and the Oscar for her work in the Best Picture frontrunner, Nomadland.
Most people, other than Yours Truly, barely pay attention to Oscar history, so they don’t think about how odd it is that it’s been almost 94 years and only one black actress has won in Best Actress —and that is now over 20 years ago, despite the recent displays of being inclusive and diverse. I would say it is a great example of “virtue signaling,” but no one really wants to hear that phrase, even if it is apt. It means displaying yourself as something other than what you really are in order to get approval from your peers. Ahem. Moving on.