Best Actor in a Leading Role
By far my absolute favorite catagory this year I feel like the Best Actor is going to be a toss-up between these guys (sorry Brad, sorry Richard). I'm so excited for this one because these performances have been so good that the pre-Oscar awards (SAG, Critic's Choice, Golden Globes, etc.) have not gone to the same person, something very a-typical and rare especially for the Best Actor award. I think the main contest will end up between Sean Penn for MILK and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler, however I have to throw Frank Langella in for his spot-on portrayal of Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon which is actually my favorite performance of the bunch but doesn't seem likely to win. Sean Penn, an Oscar vet, seems set up for another and having won the Critic's Choice award this year he fits the tradition of Critic's Choice winners going on to take home the big prize. He was spectacular in MILK and would be more than deserving of an award but in all honesty if I was voting I would pick this year's Cinderella, Mickey Rourke. His work in The Wrestler was the most subtle and real performance so it may not seem as obvious as Penn's but that is what makes it so amazing. To come from where he was and have this opportunity, one he may never get again, makes the idea of him winning the award very romantic. Besides, I just find his rough genuineness so refreshing and feel like he doesn't expect the win which makes the surprise and gratitude that much more sincere.
Who do I think will win? Penn. Who do I want to win? Rourke!
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Hands down, Kate Winslet! First of all, 0-5!? The fact that she has been nominated that many times but still has not won is the silliest thing to me! She is officially the most nominated female (and is the youngest actor ever with that many nods) without having won and is notorious for being the runner-up, always managing to be slightly overlooked by major film awards. Actually, in her history she has only ever been recognized as a winner once--ONCE!--with a BAFTA for Sense and Sensibility before this year's long overdue slew of awards. Of the 25 films shes been in there are only 11 that she has not been nominated for a major award in, though they continuously are critically acclaimed performances, so she has a history of being teased with nominations only to get screwed over! This is the first year she has had constant wins, particularly at the Golden Globes where she won Best Actress for Revolutionary Road and Best Supporting Actress for The Reader and finally because I think she is the greatest female actor alive. She is long overdue for an Oscar, plus I fucking love it when people cry when they win and as we've had a chance to see she is just a hot mess and I totally eat it up. I cried when she talked about Leo at the Golden Globes so I just can't wait. It's strange that the nomination is for The Reader but I actually think if I had to nominate just one of her roles I would choose that one too; as great as she is in both there is just no excuse for her performance as Hanna Schmitz...it's literally absurd how amazing she is.
Sure, Meryl Streep was great in Doubt but she is always great, in Changeling Angelina Jolie really wants her son--who I'm sure she adopted at some point during filming--back, and Melissa Leo deserves her Frozen River nomination (Anne Hathaway doesn't get to win an Oscar because she's Anne Hathaway, despite a great performance) but this one is Kate Winslet's. And I totally had to include a clip of her Globes speech because it is just too sweet and lovely.
SIXTH TIME'S THE CHARM!
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