For months now, I have been describing 2013 as one of the best movie years in Hollywood’s history in terms of ramge, quality, and diversity of American movies.
Mainstream Hollywood Cinema has always been star-oriented and stra-driven, and so most of us (scholars and critics alike) have usually focused on the lead roles and the actors who play them, male and female. (Some of it is a function of space)
To correct this bias, and before it’s too late, I would like put American screen acting in broader perspective.
Here is my list of worthy performances in supporting (secondary) roles by female actors (in alphabetical order):
Garner, Jennifer: Dallas Buyers Club
Harris, Naomi: Mandela: The Walk to Freedom
Johansson, Scarlett: Her
Lawrence, Jennifer: American Hustle (nominated)
Leo, Melissa: Prisoners
Martindale, Margo: August–Osage County
Nyong’ O, Lupita: 12 Years a Slave (nominated)
Paulson, Sarah: 12 Years a Slave
Roberts, Julia: August–Ausage County (nominated)
Saldana, Zoe: Out of the Furnace
Sedoux, Lea: Blue Is the Warmest Color
Spencer, Octavia: Fruitvale
Squib, June: Nebraska (nominated)
Watson, Emily: The Book Thief
Winfrey, Oprah: Lee Daniels’ The Butler