Recent high-profile Best Actress wins for Anora’s Mikey Madison and The Substance’s Demi Moore (Madison got the Bafta and the Independent Spirit; Moore got the Golden Globe and SAG) have made the pair neck and neck, too.
While Oscar loves an ingenue, and Fernanda Torres is stoic and sublime in I’m Still Here, Moore just stomps all over her fellow nominees when it comes to sheer risk: in The Substance, she is both vulnerable and ferocious, her work also feeling in conversation with Moore’s erratic 40 years in the business.
There have been whispers that Madison could prove victorious here – a theory mostly bolstered by her Best Actress win at the Baftas – but I’m still convinced this is Moore’s for the taking.
OK, hear me out: could Timothée Chalamet’s more Oscar-friendly movie and more Oscar-friendly personality grab the Best Actor prize from the tips of Adrien Brody’s fingers?
Remember when everyone assumed Michael Keaton would win Best Actor for Birdman in 2015, only for grinning, congenial, just-happy-to-be-there Eddie Redmayne to swoop in at the last minute to take home the award instead?
