In 2020 – for the first time in 7 years – the Best Supporting Actress Oscar category saw a lone nomination, meaning that a film was recognized there and nowhere else. This achievement is attributed to Kathy Bates for Richard Jewell.
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This was perhaps unsurprisingly, given the length of the streak she broke, there has yet to be a lone contender in any of her category’s subsequent lineups.
Helen Hunt (“The Sessions,” 2013) preceded Bates, but her inclusion in her lineup was more heavily predicted.
Both women had the perceived advantage of being known quantities, former Best Actress champions, with Bates’s victory in “Misery” (1991) and Hunt’s in “As Good As It Gets” (1998), which won Best Picture.
The last time multiple supporting actresses received lone nominations was in 2008, when Cate Blanchett (“I’m Not There”) and Amy Ryan (“Gone Baby Gone”) both challenged eventual winner Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton,” which was nominated for Best Picture and other awards.
The category’s record for most lone bids in a single year was in 1972 and matched in 1988. The first trio consisted of Ann-Margret (“Carnal Knowledge”), Barbara Harris (“Who Is Harry Kellerman?”), and Margaret Leighton (“The Go-Between”).
The second included Norma Aleandro (“Gaby: A True Story”), Anne Ramsey (“Throw Momma from the Train”), and Ann Sothern (“The Whales of August”).
The victors in those respective cases were Cloris Leachman (“The Last Picture Show”) and Olympia Dukakis (“Moonstruck”), both of whose films were nominated for Best Picture.
She was followed in order by Claire Trevor (“Key Largo,” 1949), Margaret Rutherford (“The V.I.P.s,” 1964), Goldie Hawn (“Cactus Flower,” 1970), Linda Hunt (“The Year of Living Dangerously,” 1984), Marisa Tomei (“My Cousin Vinny,” 1993), Angelina Jolie (“Girl, Interrupted,” 2000), and Penélope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” 2009). Most of these women stood as the only loners in their lineups, but Hawn and Tomei were respectively joined in that regard by Catherine Burns (“Last Summer”) and Miranda Richardson (“Damage”).
In 1948, Ethel Barrymore set an impressive precedent as the first performer to compete as a loner for either supporting Oscar on more than one occasion thanks to her back-to-back bids for “The Spiral Staircase” and “The Paradine Case.”
Barrymore has since been followed by just 3 others women: Marjorie Rambeau (“Primrose Path,” 1941; “Torch Song,” 1954), Thelma Ritter (“The Mating Season,” 1952; “Pickup on South Street,” 1954), and Geraldine Page (“You’re a Big Boy Now,” 1967; “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” 1985).
Assuming a loner will show up somewhere this year, Best Supporting Actress is generally viewed as the place for it.
Jodie Foster’s status is a predicted nominee for “Nyad,” which is expected to be overlooked elsewhere.
