It has taken nearly seven months, but it appears this weekend brings us the first very legitimate contender to earn an acting nomination at the 2013 Oscars. That would be Cate Blanchett in the lead role of Woody Allen’s latest, Blue Jasmine.
The picture has earned solid reviews so far (81% on Rotten Tomatoes, an “A” grade from Entertainment Weekly today), but the word on Blanchett’s performance is rapturous.
An Oscar nomination for Blanchett is hardly rare. She received her first nomination for Best Actress in 1998 for Elizabeth, losing out to Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. In 2004, she won the Supporting Actress category for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. Since then, Blanchett has been nominated three more times: for Supporting Actress in 2006 for Notes on a Scandal (lost to Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls), for Actress in 2007 for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (lost to Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose), and also in 2007 for Supporting Actress in I’m Not There (lost to Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton). A nod for Blue Jasmine would mark Cate’s sixth nomination.
An actor or actress being nominated for their work in a Woody Allen picture is also a common occurrence. There have been an astonishing 16 performers whose acting has been recognized by the Academy for their participation in an Allen film. Of those 16 nominations, we’ve seen six winners. They are:
Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (1977) – Actress category
Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) – Supporting Actor category
Dianne Wiest in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) – Supporting Actress category
Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway (1994) – Supporting Actress category
Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) – Supporting Actress category
Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) – Supporting Actress category
It’s worth noting that five of the six Allen directed winners are female and 11 of the 16 nominees total are women. Bottom line: Woody Allen knows how to write and direct roles for actresses to get nominated. Furthermore, he’s a master at casting.
Combine the high-level acting talent of Blanchett with the words of Mr. Allen and I would say this performance stands the greatest chance of any this year to get Oscar recognition for 2013 so far.
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