2018 Oscar Predictions – BEST ACTRESS (August): Annette Bening, Sally Hawkins Storm the Chart
After making debuts last month on the low levels of the Best Actress chart, Annette Bening (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool) and Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) make huge jumps, tying for the #7 slot this month against a top 6 that’s been largely unmovable.
For Bening, the rise comes off the news that Sony Pictures Classics is circling her film for distribution (there is no deal in place at the time of this piece). SPC has proven itself experts at Best Actress nominations and wins, most recently with a first-time nomination for Isabelle Huppert in Elle this year and their biggest get to date – Julianne Moore’s overdue Oscar win for 2014’s Still Alice. Bening definitely falls into the Moore category as an over-50, multi-nominated actress with a respected reputation whose time has come.
For Sally Hawkins, her rise from a single vote last month (I should note that both Bening and Hawkins’ single votes last month were from yours truly) to being a major contender fits perfectly with the rise of her film, The Shape of Water, elsewhere on the charts where it is in the top 5 in both Best Picture and Best Director for August.
The lone blue in a sea of red this month is Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird, actress Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut. She takes flight at #11.
Here are the 2018 Oscar predictions for Best Actress for August from the Gold Rush Gang. Keep an eye on all of the Gold Rush Gang’s 2018 Oscar predictions updated LIVE throughout the month.
Green – moves up from last month
Red – moves down from last month
Blue – debut/new entry
| BEST ACTRESS | ERIK ANDERSON |
BRYAN BONAFEDE | GREG HOWARD | EVAN KOST |
JASON OSIASON | KENNETH POLISHCHUK |
DENIZCAN SÜRÜCÜ | RICHARD ANTHONY |
ŞÜKRÜ SÖĞÜT | MATT DINN | TOTAL POINTS |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meryl Streep – The Papers | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 96 |
| 2 | Kate Winslet – Wonder Wheel | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 82 |
| 3 | Judi Dench – Victoria and Abdul | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 74 |
| 4 | Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri | 7 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 59 |
| 4 | Claire Foy – Breathe | 5 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 59 |
| 6 | Jennifer Lawrence – mother! | 9 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 46 | |
| 7 | Annette Bening – Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool | 1 | 7 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 38 | |||
| 7 | Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water | 8 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 38 | |
| 9 | Daniela Vega – A Fantastic Woman | 6 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 28 | |
| 10 | Rooney Mara – Mary Magdalene | 10 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | |||||
| 11 | Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | |||||
| 12 | Helen Mirren – The Leisure Seeker | 6 | 5 | |||||||||
| 13 | Rachel Weisz – Disobedience | 9 | 10 | 3 | ||||||||
| 13 | Margot Robbie – I, Tonya (possibly 2018) | 9 | 10 | 3 | ||||||||
| 15 | Emma Stone – Battle of the Sexes | 9 | 2 | |||||||||
| 16 | Jessica Chastain – Molly’s Game | 10 | 1 | |||||||||
| OTHER CONTENDERS | ||||||||||||
| Alicia Vikander – Submergence | ||||||||||||
| Brie Larson – The Glass Castle | ||||||||||||
| Carey Mulligan – Mudbound | ||||||||||||
| Diane Keaton – Hampstead | ||||||||||||
| Diane Kruger – In the Fade | ||||||||||||
| Emma Thompson – The Children Act | ||||||||||||
| Eva Green – Based on a True Story | ||||||||||||
| Eva Green – Euphoria | ||||||||||||
| Glenn Close – The Wife | ||||||||||||
| Halle Berry – Kings | ||||||||||||
| Helena Bonham Carter – 55 Steps | ||||||||||||
| Isabelle Huppert – Happy End | ||||||||||||
| Jessica Chastain – Woman Walks Ahead | ||||||||||||
| Julia Roberts – Wonder | ||||||||||||
| Julianne Moore – Suburbicon | ||||||||||||
| Kate Beckinsale – The Only Living Boy in New York | ||||||||||||
| Kate Winslet – The Mountain Between Us | ||||||||||||
| Keira Knightley – The Aftermath | ||||||||||||
| Kirsten Dunst – Woodshock | ||||||||||||
| Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me? | ||||||||||||
| Michelle Pfeiffer – Where is Kyra? | ||||||||||||
| Michelle Williams – All the Money in the World | ||||||||||||
| Millicent Simmonds – Wonderstruck | ||||||||||||
| Nicole Kidman – The Beguiled | ||||||||||||
| Rachel Weisz – My Cousin Rachel | ||||||||||||
| Sally Hawkins – Maudie |
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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