1993's Best Actress Oscar Nominees

i don't even remember who won. holly? (internet says yes.)

i'd go angela.

Me too, and Fishburne would be at or near the head of the pack in his category too. It's almost a blessing to both their performances that the movie itself is so run-of-the-mill.

Stockard Channing. Man, I know no actress whose stage-bound brittleness and passion worked so well in a part.

Channing has really become the retroactive cult fave in this category.

She was my favorite then!

On the other hand there was a bit of "enough already" when Emma Thompson got two nominations.

btw all these performances are respectable.

...which you don't see very often in this notorious category.

Polite bump.

Debra Winger ain't bad either.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Maybe we don't do these polls so much anymore.

I saw Channing do 6D on Broadway, but don't think I bothered to vote.

I've been writing about these races, offering my own ballot. I don't agree with the winner.

I agree with your winner.

Yeah, Channing is great in SDOS. I haven't seen The Piano in a very long time, so I can't speak to Hunter's performance, but it is wild that this is the movie for which she won an Oscar given how against type it is. Her Georgia drawl is one of the greatest voices in cinema, and she wins for a performance in which she doesn't speak!

Glad someone agrees about her drawl.

The surprise was the okayness of Angela Bassett.

It has literally been decades since I've seen most of these, but I don't see anything particularly unworthy in this batch.

Good call on Ashley Judd for Ruby in Paradise and Juliette Binoche for Blue. I would've nominated them over Emma Thompson (and tbf I think she does deliver a fine performance in an otherwise mixed bag of a film), but I really liked Bassett and Winger too even though I wish the films themselves were better (usual Hollywood "biopic" problems).

Also, I guess it's fitting that an award for best cinematic performance went to someone who had to deliver a one without the benefit of being heard (even though there is some narration, but I doubt many voters took that into account).

*deliver one without the benefit

FWIW, I saw Victor Nuñez talk about Ruby in Paradise and he had nothing but great things to say about her. I don't blame her for doing this, but when she auditioned, she was still a virtual unknown and brought up her family's claim to fame, I'm guessing to help leverage her audition in some way. Not that it would make a difference, but you can tell she really wanted the role - she even gave the a CD in case they had no idea who the Judds were - but she was so amazing in her audition she easily won it on her own.