Final 2020 Oscar Predictions – BEST ACTRESS

Renée Zellweger is about to become only the second person ever (after Daniel Day-Lewis) to win the Golden Globe, Critics Choice, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and the Oscar for a single performance, twice. She did it with Cold Mountain in supporting actress and she’ll complete this feat in Best Actress with Judy, making her the first person to do it in two different categories.

There is very little, if anything, standing in her way of accomplishing this, having been the frontrunner here since Judy premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Not only does the Academy love a physically transformative performance but elements of portraying screen legend Judy Garland mirrored a bit Zellweger’s own life. Not the drug addiction but being overworked by an industry that had built her up to the highest heights only to tear her down. Zellweger took a long break from the business to reassess her place in it and came back refreshed, confident and, more than ever before, ready to play the awards game. Gone was her shy and reticent self-doubt and in its place was vigor and energy and a radiant positivity.

Zellweger will be the 7th actress to sweep all precursors on her way to the Oscar this decade. Sometimes it’s just that easy to predict. Plus, what better way to acknowledge Garland, who never won a competitive Oscar during her prolific and successful career.

Here are my ranked Final Oscar predictions for Best Actress with a chart of a decade of related precursors and history.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

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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