Best Actress 2025: Lupita Nyong’o and Others Under the Radar

I finally watched A Quiet Place: Day One the other day and I was shocked that there isn’t any buzz for Lupita Nyong’o in the lead, considering the film made over $100 million. And yes, I understand there was a campaign for her in the film Us and that ultimately resulted in no nomination. But still, there is no excuse. The Best Actress race is already jam-packed with the five anointed by the pundits. The industry voters might make an independent choice here or there, but when the fix is in, the fix is in.

Let’s look at The Oscar Expert and Brother Bro, who seemed to be the most popular Oscar folks on YouTube. What I like most about them is that they are mercifully outside the clutches of Oscar Twitter and that makes them more interesting. However, they are as much into groupthink as the other sites, and I understand why. Nobody knows anything. They’re bouncing off of a consensus that has emerged among Oscar pundits. It exists only there, nowhere else.

But why isn’t Nyong’s name among them?

Three out of five of the frontrunners are performances that have yet to be seen. Most of the rest of them are in movies that have yet to be seen. Yet, here is a performance by an actress — and if I have to speak in the parlance of the Left to make this point I will: a Black woman in a leading role in a major Hollywood film that gives a brilliant performance is being ignored by the Oscar pundits.

The Oscar voters ignore genre movies. Is that it? Is that really the reason why? What makes all of us suddenly decide some people are worthy of buzz and others aren’t? All it really does is deflate the Oscar race itself and the film industry, quite frankly. With the exception of Joker: Folie a Deux, Challengers, and maybe Wicked, A Quiet Place: Day One will have made more than all of the others combined.

Another performance that has been ignored completely is Kate Winslet in Lee. I will admit I wasn’t a fan of the film but that was mainly due to the writing. The overt feminist agenda destroyed the story, It can’t just be about empowerment, not with Nazis and war involved. It has to be more than that. The characters shouldn’t be screaming the theme at us. Ripley in Alien isn’t going around whining about sexism. It’s not interesting. Sorry. However, Kate Winslet is wonderful in the part of Lee. She’s always good and she’s especially good here, even with the bad dialogue. I know enough about this game to know why no one is talking about her, but still, it’s a little odd.

Jodie Comer in the Bike Riders is another standout that is being ignored absolutely. Why? Because the film screened at last year’s Telluride and was held back. Then, when it came out this year it didn’t have any buzz because there is no film industry anymore, not one that doesn’t function as Fashion Week where the insulated bubble who cares about this stuff pretends the movies still matter. But Comer is great. She always is. She’s underrated and ignored for some inexplicable reason. Even I don’t have her on my contender tracker. That’s how bad it is. I’m not blaming everyone else. I know I play a part in the dog and pony show too.

Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa – in a different kind of Oscar scene, one that still backed up a thriving film industry, rather than a pointless bubble that means nothing five minutes from now, our best Actress lineup would include both Lupita Nyong’o and Anya Taylor-Joy as prominent roles in prominent movies, even if they are considered “genre films.” Why bother making those movies if they aren’t even considered for the Oscars? And instead we hold places for people whose performances have yet to be seen. Why? Who knows.

It’s true that Furiosa “disappointed” at the box office, but that’s because if you’re going to make a Mad Max movie, he’d better be a prominent character. Replacing traditional male roles with female substitutes has been a disaster for Big Hollywood. It was like swapping out french fries for broccoli in a Happy Meal. Give the people what they want, and the people will come, Ray. But that doesn’t mean Anya Taylor-Joy didn’t blow it out of the part. She did. Why are we all thinking so small?

I was surprised at how inventive and interesting A Quiet Place: Day One was. Much of that was due to the performance of Nyong’o and, okay, the cat. I bet it’s a movie that will, over time, be recognized as the best of the three.

Anyway, food for thought as we wipe clean all of these names as festival season begins.