Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Ranking Every 96th Academy Award Nominee
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
This article is a part of the Academy Awards Project, where Andreas Babiolakis from Films Fatale ranks every Oscar nominee from worst to best, and goes through every category once a day five days a week.
Yesterday, I covered the Best Actor in a Supporting Role nominees, and today’s rankings and thought processes won’t be any different. I’m looking for the performances where these five women shined, stole scenes or entire films, or enhanced the leading performances (as supporting acting should). I’ll preface this by saying that — of all the acting categories this year — this one is easily the least competitive. That isn’t to say that there weren’t great female supporting roles this year (in fact, I feel like there was a major snub, which you can read more about below), but there was a clear winner for this category months ago; I don’t think anyone has even come close since (nor have we pretended that they have). I’m a fan of all five of the nominated women here, but I also think this ranking was a cakewalk for me (compared to a lot of the categories that are to come).
Here are your nominees for Best Actress in a Supporting Role ranked from worst to best.
Biggest Snub: Sandra Hüller-The Zone of Interest
It’s rare for a performer to get double nominated in one year, but it can happen. Sandra Hüller deserved to have such recognition in 2024. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Anatomy of a Fall, which is highly deserved, but she was just as effective — albeit in a different way — in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. Hüller is despicable in this film, as her pride and privilege corrode all the people around her as she fusses and storms about to get her way like a child. Her joy almost always comes from a dark place, and Hüller’s ability to make you feel sick to your stomach during her moments of glee is an important piece as to why this film works; if The Zone of Interest’s purpose is to get you to reflect on the atrocities of the Holocaust by not seeing the genocide and torture firsthand, Hüller’s impeccable take on the awful lengths of blind compliance (all in the name of living a life of fortune) helps Glazer and the film complete this mission.
5. America Ferrera-Barbie
While America Ferrera’s nomination for Barbie was one of the more pleasant surprises of this year’s mostly-predictable Academy Awards lineup (and I’m happy that she will forever be known as an Oscar nominee for the rest of her life), I also think her work as Gloria is the weakest of the five nominees. I don’t think anything she did was bad at all. Let me get into why Ferrera works so well first. Gloria is meant to be the everyday woman in a film about the existential crises of the female population within a patriarchal, capitalistic, fear-mongering society. Ferrera is so down to earth and real that she nails her purpose in the film. What I think sealed the deal for Ferrera was Gloria’s now-viral monologue about the female experience, where she carries the lengthy part tremendously. I also think — compared to the other four nominees — Gloria is truly a supporting role in the sense that she is there for Barbie to mirror, or for the film to have a yardstick to measure the tone of Barbieland with, et cetera. Gloria’s only capable of going so far compared to the other nominees; while Ferrera makes the most of the character (so she shines in Barbie), her place in this category is sadly last.
4. Emily Blunt-Oppenheimer
It’s true that Christopher Nolan has struggled with making great female characters over the course of his career, and I wouldn’t say that his writing of Kitty Oppenheimer is a full realization (although it is better than he has been in the past). Having said that, I feel like Emily Blunt as Katherine — or “Kitty” — in Oppenheimer takes what she has and makes it so much stronger. So much disappointment, resentment, confusion, and forgiveness can be read just in her eyes, as she gazes upon husband J. Robert Oppenheimer’s trials and tribulations. Part of the reason why Cillian Murphy excels as Robert is because of how much Blunt gives him to work with. I don’t think she steals the entire film at any point, but Blunt most certainly steals scenes when needed. She embodies her husband’s guilt in more ways than one (given the marital troubles showcased in the film, for instance), and Blunt makes this known throughout all of Oppenheimer. Again, it feels like the way Kitty was written was to best serve the main character from his perspective, but Blunt makes the most of what she is given with one of the more fully-realized performances in a Nolan film. Also, congratulations to Emily Blunt on finally securing an Oscar nom (when she was due around four or five by now)!
3. Jodie Foster-Nyad
Unlike some other critics, I’m not surprised that Jodie Foster is here. Her work in Nyad has been discussed since the film festival circuit of last year mainly for one reason: she kind of steals the entire film. While Annette Bening will always be a brilliant performer (and she is quite strong as an actor in Nyad), Foster instantly feels like she commands the screen as Diana Nyad’s friend and coach Bonnie Stoll. She struts like she has been a professional athlete her entire life. Her personality takes the wheel and steers so many of the film’s pivotal scenes, especially when Diana is swimming; sure, Bening is great during these moments, but it is up to Foster to make these moments have oomph and a voice (there’s not much exhilaration that stems from watching someone marathon swim is all I’m saying). I left Nyad thinking about Foster’s likeability and realism the most. She has always possessed a natural, neutral dynamic to her performances: she seems grounded, yet so cinematic at the same time. Foster doesn’t really have a snowball-in-hell’s chance of winning, but I’m glad that she got another nomination to add to her illustrious career.
2. Danielle Brooks-The Color Purple
I’m a bit stunned that The Color Purple didn’t get more nominations; not for costume design; not for production; not for its strong songs. Having said that, it did get one nod in the form of Danielle Brooks as Sofia, and that feels quite good to see. Brooks isn’t given a hell of a lot of screen time, but what she is presented with are mostly major sequences; Brooks nails every single one of them. Whether she is sassy and a scene stealer (who acts as an authority of confidence for protagonist Celie), or she is broken and stoic, Brooks hits these cues with ease. My only minor drawback isn’t even Brooks’ fault at all: the film dials Sofia back during her more serious moments and also kickstarts her vibrant side up again a little too suddenly, which kind of makes Sofia feel like two different characters in a major sequence (Brooks still makes this drastic shift as natural as possible). Otherwise, Brooks sings (with gusto), brings light or darkness to any room (depending on what part of the film you’re at), and comes out of a star-studded film as one of its top takeaways. Brooks is destined to be a superstar. She always was.
1. Da’Vine Joy Randolph-The Holdovers
Da’Vine Joy Randolph will destroy your heart in The Holdovers. As the grieving mother Mary Lamb (and the head cook of Barton Academy), Randolph is the embodiment of those with doomed lives that just keep on trucking. She’s not hunky-dory about it, either. She just exists because she feels like she has to. To see her destroyed and suffering on the inside leads to most of the sadder moments of Alexander Payne’s dramedy; the rare instance where she outwardly breaks is even harder to ignore. The rare moments where Randolph experiences joy make me equally teary-eyed because I feel like she deserves a break and a chance in life. If Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa weren’t so strong in their own respective performances, Randolph would have unquestionably made The Holdovers her own; she still seems to have done so via acting that makes her vital as the pathos within a film about snobbish entitlement. Randolph has been winning all the awards for her role here, and she fully deserves them. She perfectly represents all of the lonely people, particularly those surviving the deaths of loved ones all by themselves, in The Holdovers, and she singlehandedly made me a mess. Let the bright light in her life come from that of an Oscar statue being handed over to her.
Who I Want To Win: I think both Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Danielle Brooks stunned me the most in this category, so I’ll be rooting for either of them to win this year (I like all of the nominated performers here, keep in mind, and I’d like America Ferrera and Emily Blunt to be actual winners at some point, too).
Who I Think Will Win: Without a doubt, this trophy is going to Da’Vine Joy Randolph. I don’t think anyone else stands a chance at this point in time. The only possibility I can see is Emily Blunt winning a BAFTA (given the institution’s bias towards British works) and potentially a SAG award (SAG does love her) and tipping the award season race in that direction. Having said that, I still don’t think that’ll happen, and that this win is almost fully in favour of Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The Academy Awards Project will continue tomorrow with another category. We’re going to rank every single nominee in every single category, Monday through Friday. You don’t want to miss it!
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.