Last week, Kyle Buchanan at Vulture singled out Lady Bird as a film that might go home empty-handed on Oscar night. Indeed, it is one of two or three that might because there aren’t that many categories where it can or will win. The press seems unusually worried about Lady Bird, probably because they don’t want the only movie directed by a woman to go home empty handed. But that’s happened before. In fact, it has happened often, not just with women also nominated for Best Director but certainly with Best Picture.
I decided to take a look at how the wins laid out vis a vis Best Picture. I think you might find these charts interesting.
These are the Best Picture nominees directed by women that have gone home empty-handed:
An Education
The Kids Are All Right
Winter’s Bone
Even stranger is that these Best Picture nominees that WON the SAG ensemble went home empty-handed:
American Hustle
Hidden Figures
Only one year, 2014, did all of the Best Picture nominees win an Oscar. In all other years, films went home empty-handed, like The Wolf of Wall Street and True Grit. So it isn’t all that bad a thing to not win. At least you’re in good company.
This year things could go any which way, but let’s start with what they think MIGHT happen:
- The Shape of Water — will likely win Best Director, but could also win Production Design, Score, maybe Cinematography
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — will likely win Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, COULD WIN Screenplay, Picture, Editing
- Call Me By Your Name — will likely win Adapted Screenplay, COULD win Picture
- Darkest Hour — will likely win Best Actor, Makeup. Could win Cinematography, Production Design
- Phantom Thread — will likely win Costume, COULD win Score, outside shot Best Picture
- Dunkirk — will likely win Sound, Sound Editing, Editing, COULD win cinematography, Score, Picture
- Get Out — will likely win Original Screenplay, COULD WIN Picture, Director
- Lady Bird — COULD win Original Screenplay, Picture, Supporting Actress, Actress
- The Post — ???
It really does get down to being without the crafts nominations to pick up the slack. There are only so many Oscars that can be won. Thing is, it isn’t the worst thing to go home empty handed. Getting nominated at all is a big deal. Remember, Vertigo never won a single Oscar, was only nominated for two, and is now considered the greatest film of all time.
![2025 Oscars: Can a Late-Breaker Still Win Best Picture? [POLL]](https://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gladiator-350x250.jpg)
So just comparing the winners, right? Then:
2018: McDormand
2017: Affleck (Ahhh, you’re killing me, man! I love Emma Stone, but I don’t think that was her most impressive performance, so I think Affleck deserves it more, even though it blows to not vote for Emma…)
2016: DiCaprio
2015: Redmayne
2014: McConaughey
2013: DDL
2012: (Also never saw The Iron Lady)
2011: Portman (Finally I can vote for a female again! Guess I’m just not a fan of recent Lead Actress winners, except for Emma…)
If from among all of the nominees:
2018: Let’s go Daniel Kaluuya, so as to have three different winners for this year, since I find all of them so deserving! (McDormand is obviously close)
2017: Ruth Negga – Loving
2016: Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn (DiCaprio is close, as is J-Law)
2015: Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night (Redmayne is close)
2014: Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave (I’m spreading the wealth again, because I was never really able to decide between these two performances, anyway!… McConaughey is obviously very close)
2013: Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty (I don’t know, this one’s super-hard to decide on… both Watts – The Impossible – and Lewis – Lincoln – are super-close for me…)
2012: Viola Davis – The Help (from the ones I’ve seen; Rooney Mara is close)
2011: Natalie Portman – Black Swan (again, “from the ones I’ve seen” seems like a necessary qualifier…)
And, finally, if just overall… I’ve only kept tabs on three years – this year, last year and 2013 (2014 Oscar year):
2018: Allison Williams – Get Out (both Daniel Kaluuya and Frances McDormand are close)
2017: Rebecca Hall – Christine (Amy Adams, Sandra Huller and Zoe Kazan – The Monster – are all super-close; on the men’s side, only Joel Edgerton – Loving – is)
2014: Adele Exarchopoulos – La vie d’Adele (both Chiwetel and McConaughey are close.)
“[this was harder than I thought it’d be]”
This. 🙂
Wow, we have the same winners in both lead and supporting for the last 3 years, I think! 🙂 Except for Naomie Harris (I’d go Kidman – Lion.) Then, beyond that, no overlap for lead – a lot more for supporting, though, I suspect. (Haven’t done it, but, looking at your list of winners, I like a lot of them.)
Saoirsa Should have won for Brooklyn. She was unforgettable .
Of the nominees, otherwise I’d never get done, and lead/supporting…
Portman/Bale
Oldman/Hill
Cooper/Hoffman
Blanchette/Leto
Keaton/Stone
DiCaprio/Winslet
Affleck/Williams
Oldman/Janney
I would hate it if they did that though because then fewer people would get Oscars.
Oh, yeah, Kidman was absolutely amazing in it! (I already liked Dev Patel a lot – I’m a Slumdog Millionaire fan, plus I really liked him in Skins, too.) Hell or High Water was a really good movie, as well. I just didn’t love it, like I did Lion.
Performance of the Year (2002-2017)
[this was harder than I thought it’d be]
2000: Jamie Bell – Billy Elliot
2001: Naomi Watts – Mulholland Drive
2002: Olivier Gourmet – The Son
2003: Hossain Amededdin – Crimson Gold
2004: Nicole Kidman – Birth
2005: Tommy Lee Jones – The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
2006: Laura Dern – Inland Empire
2007: Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
2008: Benicio del Toro – Che
2009: Tahar Rahim – A Prophet
2010: Juliette Binoche – Certified Copy
2011: Anna Paquin – Margaret
2012: Daniel Day Lewis – Lincoln
2013: Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
2014: Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
2015: Gérard Depardieu – Welcome to New York
2016: Isabelle Huppert – Elle
2017: Timothée Chalamet – Call Me by Your Name
Lead/Supporting:
2010: Natalie Portman/John Hawkes
2011: Rooney Mara/Christopher Plummer
2012: Emmanuelle Riva/Philip Seymour Hoffman
2013: Chiwetel Ejiofor/Jared Leto
2014: Marion Cotillard/Patricia Arquette
2015: Saoirse Ronan/Mark Rylance
2016: Isabelle Huppert/Mahershala Ali
2017: abstain, too few already seen
To clarify: I voted my favourite leading and supporting performances based on the ten actors/actresses nominated in that respective year.
She was way too young for the part.
Of the performances nominated (with a winner starred ***)”
Lead:
2000: Laura Linney – You Can Count on Me
2001: Sissy Spacek – In the Bedroom
2002: Julianne Moore – Far From Heaven
2003: Bill Murray – Lost in Translation
2004: Imelda Staunton – Vera Drake
2005: Philip Seyour Hoffman – Capote***
2006: Penelope Cruz — Volver
2007: Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood***
2008: Richard Jenkins — The Visitor
2009: Colin Firth — A Single Man
2010: Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
2011: Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2012: Emanuelle Riva – Amour
2013: Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine***
2014: Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
2015: Saiorse Ronan — Brooklyn
2016: Casey Affleck — Manchester by the Sea***
Supporting:
2000: Marcia Gay Harden — Pollock
2001: Jim Broadbent – Iris***
2002: Ed Harris – The Hours
2003: Patricia Clarkson – Pieces of April
2004: Virginia Madsen — Sideways
2005: Amy Adams — Junebug
2006: Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine
2007: Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men***
2008: Viola Davis — Doubt
2009: Mo’nique — Precious***
2010: John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
2011: Octavia Spencer – The Help***
2012: Helen Hunt – The Sessions
2013: June Squibb — Nebraska
2014: J.K. Simmons – Whiplash***
2015: Rooney Mara — Carol
2016: Naomie Harris — Moonlight
Another artsy “war-is-disorienting” movie. Technically it’s great but the cinematic storytelling was so horrible I sadly walked out half way.
Lead/Supporting:
2010: Portman/Bale
2011: Dujardin/Spencer
2012: Day-Lewis/Waltz
2013: Blanchett/Nyong’o
2014: Moore/Arquette
2015: Larson/Rylance
2016: Portman/Ali
2017: abstain since I haven’t seen McDormand or Rockwell yet
Of the nominees:
2010: Portman/Bale
2011: Mara/von Sydow (although I haven’t seen Bichir or Nolte’s performances)
2012: Phoenix/Hoffman
2013: Blanchett/Nyong’o
2014: Pike/Arquette
2015: Blanchett/Mara
2016: Portman/Ali
2017 (so far): Chalamet/Metcalf
And in general:
2010: Portman/Manville
2011: Swinton/Chastain (The Tree of Life)
2012: Phoenix/Hoffman
2013:Blanchett/Nyong’o
2014: Pike/Arquette
2015: Blanchett/Mara
2016: Huppert (L’avenir)/Ehernreich
2017 (so far): Chalamet/Dern
Also the girl who plays Frances’s daughter is a classmate of Lady Bird.
Here’s how I would’ve voted those years if there’d been one 10-person non-gendered category:
2010- Annette Bening
2011- Viola Davis
2012- Daniel Day-Lewis
2013- Cate Blanchett
2014- Michael Keaton
2015- Saoirse Ronan
2016- Isabelle Huppert
2017- Timothée Chalamet
By using an alternative diction I wanted to exemplify that a film that gets totally snubbed is not only a “loser”, but even worse, a “looser” (“loooser”, in contrast, would have been hyperbole…)
Either this, or simply: Because my english is rotten! 🙂
I agree with you 100%. And obviously I would have to answer, no, Tom Hanks was not as brilliant as Morgan Feeman that year. Glad to see someone on the site agrees with me about this particular Oscar. (And don’t get me wrong, Hanks is a great actor . . . often overlooked. But Forrest Gump? Not my cup of tea.)
Lion was my favorite film of 2016. After viewing it three times now, my esteem for this movie only grows. I was never a big fan of Nicole Kidman or Dev Patel for that matter, that is, until I saw Lion. I also very much liked Hell or High Water from 2016. Taylor Sheridan should have won the Screenplay Oscar (that went to the relentlessly depressing Manchester by the Sea). Hell or High Water was an infinitely better script.
Had Jennifer Lawrence not won the Oscar the year before for Silver Linings Playbook, I think she would have been the shoo-in favorite as Best Supporting Actress. I absolutely love her comedic timing in this movie. The scene where she’s trying to use the microwave oven? And then blames Christian Bale for buying a shitty oven? Pricelessly funny.
I’m not sure if there is anything to it, but a number of Best Picture nominees with female protagonists or leads, or that have a cast with many actresses in prominent roles, have gone home empty-handed on Oscar night:
– The Color Purple (11 nominations, tied for most noms with no wins)
– The Turning Point (11 nominations, tied for most noms with no wins)
– The Little Foxes (9 nominations)
– Peyton Place (9 nominations)
– The Nun’s Story (8 nominations)
– Auntie Mame (6 nominations)
I wouldn’t be surprised if Lady Bird joins the group, although I hope Laurie Metcalf prevents it from happening.
I honestly think it’s the former at this point.
American Hustle. Should have won atleast Costume Design.
crickets
Here’s another: Caleb Landry Jones, who’s in ”Three Billboards” and ”Get Out.”
Go see Dunkirk, it is doubtful you will be disappointed. It is that good.
And another HM goes to True Grit.
I’ll go The Wolf of Wall Street, but I prefer Brooklyn, subjectively, and I also really liked Lion.