2024 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTRESS (November)

Best Actress remains the toughest and most competitive acting category with so many stellar performances, so many first-timers going up against previous winners and a long-time nominee waiting for her first win.

The Gotham nominations were announced since October’s predictions where they nominated Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Origin), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One) and Michelle Williams (Showing Up). In a somewhat clever move, the group also nominated Lily Gladstone – not for Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple didn’t submit the film) but for The Unknown Country, her other lauded performance of 2023 (I expect her to nab a Spirit Award nom for this too). Curiously missing was Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall yet she did get a nomination in supporting for The Zone of Interest.

With The Color Purple finally starting to screen, we got our first look at Fantasia Barrino in the role of Celie in Warner Bros’ splashy movie musical version of the Tony-winning Broadway show. She has big shoes to fill with Whoopi Goldberg earning an Oscar nomination for her portrayal in the 1985 film and both LaChanze and Cynthia Erivo winning Tonys for the role. Response to Barrino’s performance has ranged from muted to rapturous but it won’t be easy to find herself in this season’s top 5 and matching her predecessors in the role. She’s as in it as many others are, circulating in a very heated top 10 that could go many ways on January 23.

With the 118-day SAG-AFTRA strike finally over, actors have been in full force doing multiple interviews, panels and Q&As, sometimes several in a single day, all to get under the wire of voting periods for Critics Choice, Spirit Awards and Golden Globes and do it all before the Thanksgiving holiday. The Gotham Awards are one week from today, Screen Actors Guild nomination voting begins December 4th and the Spirit Awards nominations are announced December 5.

Nominations for the Golden Globes will be announced on December 11, 2023 and the awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, January 7, 2024. The Screen Actors Guild will reveal their nominations on January 10 and the 30th SAG Awards will be held on February 24. Oscar nominations will be announced on January 23 and the 96th Academy Awards will be held on March 10.

Here are my 2024 Oscar predictions in Best Actress for November 2023.

1. Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple Original Films)
2. Emma Stone – Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures)
3. Annette Bening – NYAD (Netflix)
4. Carey Mulligan – Maestro (Netflix)
5. Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall (NEON)
6. Margot Robbie – Barbie (Warner Bros)
7. Fantasia Barrino – The Color Purple (Warner Bros)
8. Greta Lee – Past Lives (A24)
9. Natalie Portman – May December (Netflix)
10. Cailee Spaeny – Priscilla (A24)

Next up:  Phoebe Dynevor – Fair Play (Netflix), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor – Origin (NEON), Jane Levy – A Little Prayer (Sony Pictures Classics), Teyana Taylor – A Thousand and One (Focus Features)

Other contenders:

Leonie Benesch – The Teacher’s Lounge (Sony Pictures Classics)

Jessie Buckley – Fingernails (Apple Original Films)

Jessica Chastain – Memory (Ketchup Entertainment)

Jodie Comer – The Bikeriders (20th Century Studios)

Merve Dizdar – About Dry Grasses (Janus Films/Sideshow)

Trace Lysette – Monica (IFC Films)

Thomasin McKenzie – Eileen (NEON)

Helen Mirren – Golda (Bleecker Street)

Layla Mohammadi – The Persian Version (Sony Pictures Classics)

Michelle Williams – Showing Up (A24)

Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.