The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 2012

2012

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
This may not be a brilliant performance and probably Quvenzhané doesn't fully understand the technical part of acting yet, but I never felt her inexperience for a moment. On the contrary, she understands the character and makes her much more complex than I expected from her. Quvenzhané is much more conscious than most of the child actors that I've ever seen, never coasting on her charisma and always doing what's best for her character.

4. Naomi Watts in The Impossible 
Naomi Watts gives a really effective performance in The Impossible, which may not have blown me away, but I was still impressed by it. She does the best she can with her character and has a lion share in making the movie as dramatic and devastating as it really is. I just feel that besides the physical and dramatic part, there wasn't much going on with the character and that's probably the reason why she's not more of a contender for the actual award.

3. Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
I'm just astonished by the beautifully detailed, layered and understated performance of Jessica Chastain. She develops a characters from little bits of scenes and moments and affects without much dialogue, screen time or showy Oscar scenes. She has a lion share in making Zero Dark Thirty the shocking and stunning masterpiece that it really is. 

2. Emmanuelle Riva in Amour
This performance is nothing like I've seen in the Best Actress category and comparing it to other Oscar nominees seems really weird as a result. She may not win the Oscar for this stunning, career-crowning achievement, her performance (and Jean-Louis Trintignant's) will go down in movie history, as it should be. A deeply haunting, disturbing, depressing, mesmerising and amazing performance by an often overlooked, great talent. 

1. Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook 
Contrary to all the Oscar reviewers and just like everyone else in this world I've totally fallen under the charms of Jennifer Lawrence who gives an unbelievably amazing, beautiful performance and creates a three-dimensional character with such extraordinary passion and depth that it sets the screen on fire and makes you fall in love with her characters despite (or maybe even because of) her flaws.

So I can proudly announce

that the winner is...

Jennifer Lawrence
in
Silver Linings Playbook

 
 And a special award goes to 
Emmanuelle Riva in Amour 

 Je vous aime aussi, Mademoiselle Riva.

Final thoughts: A truly amazing year. The Academy makes some shitty safe choices in Best Picture, Actor and the rest, but they keep compensating with outstanding Actress line-ups every year so I'm happy at least about that (and also the Directors' gutsy, almost original set of nominees). Choosing between Jennifer Lawrence and Emmanuelle Riva is so damn difficult, my head said Emmanuelle, my heart said Jennifer and for subjective reasons, I went with my heart, she was just closer to me. That being said, I'll be equally happy for both of them and really I hope this will be a tie (as they will come right after each other in my ranking) and I'll probably go back and forth between them in the future (as I should be) so I'm giving out a special award to Emmanuelle (who's my own pick for Hiroshima Mon Amour so no worries). So consider this a tie on my part! I only chose because an Academy member has one vote, too. But seriously if anyone of my Top 3 won, I wouldn't be disappointed at all and I could accept a Naomi upset as well. So this year was better than alright, even though Marion Cotillard definitely deserved a nomination. :) 

Omissions: 

• Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone
• Judi Dench in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
• Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games

About the next year: First, I'll finish 1999 and then... well, I'll let you know.

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?