FYC: It’s Time for Annette Bening to Win the Oscar

Pose the question what makes a great actor and your answers may vary. What makes an enduring actor is perhaps easier to measure and some may argue relies in part on greatness. When looking at the nearly 40-year film and television career of Annette Bening, she qualifies.

Throughout, Bening’s career has been fueled by raw talent, professional curiosity, and industry respect, which includes five Academy Award nominations. One of her distinctions is that she often delivers performances which elevate her material. Early in her career, she brought a compelling voice to larger-than-life characters. Her Myra Langtry (The Grifters), Virginia Hill (Bugsy), Sydney Ellen Wade (The American President), and Carolyn Burnham (American Beauty) are no shrinking violets. In the 2000s, she continued to tackle complicated women who weren’t the most amiable or empathetic, but possessed a heightened vulnerability like Julia Lambert (Being Julia), Deirdre Burroughs (Running with Scissors), and Nic Allgood (The Kids Are All Right). Headstrong women who were challenging to care for whether due to vanity, personality, or obstinance, Bening turned them into mesmerising characters (and quite often, she did it with the expert drag of a cigarette).

In 2015, Mike Mills cast her as Dorothea Fields in 20th Century Women. He hadn’t primed his audience for what was in store: a carefully cultivated cinematic valentine to his mother. Mills employed Roger Neill’s light, but moving score and Sean Porter’s keen eye to create a nostalgic and thoughtful coming-of-age story which signalled a maturity in the director’s style. In the centre was the matriarchal Bening with a timeless, finely drawn performance. In a small bob of sandy blonde curls, she’s pensive, inquisitive, and flows with changing times, whilst clutching to choice parts of her core essence. Bening is absolutely remarkable.

Now regarded as one of her best turns, her Dorothea initially got lost in the shuffle of the 2016 awards season. A missed opportunity to honour her has become some kind of cruel trivia to rival her two losses to Hilary Swank. Instead of citing Bening, the Academy nominated both Natalie Portman and Emma Stone, the former won an Oscar over her in 2010, and the latter would win that year and is favoured to win yet again. More trivia: it was the envelope holding Stone’s name card which was mistakenly handed to Bening’s husband Warren Beatty when he infamously read the Best Picture winner as La La Land.

There have been a few full-circle moments recently for Bening. In Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, she played Hollywood actress Gloria Graham, whose movies inspired her Myra Langtry. Where Langtry was a resourceful and driven con artist, Bening’s Graham is confident, but worn. She has been taken down a few notches, but survived and is as resolute as ever to create a happy life for herself, even if it’s an illusion. There is more caution to the way she looks, speaks, and acts. Similar to her Dorothea, as well as her appearances in Mother and Child and The Face of Love, Bening’s performance here is quieter and subtle. Conversely, in her latest role as endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, she returns to her more colourful and brash characters from her heyday.

In NYAD, screenwriter Julia Cox uses the athlete’s autobiography to create an uplifting story where conquering superhuman goals, overcoming obstacles, and self-mythologising collide. Sparsely employed flashbacks to Diana as a teenager, as well as footage of the real Diana Nyad in her 20s, conventionally provide backstory to her reinvigorated desire to swim Cuba to Florida in the early 2010s. The strength of the script lies in the fascinating, detailed technical breakdown that went into this small, yet massive enterprise from raising funds to assembling a support team right down to the practical modifications of each attempt. Partnered filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi create a venture that is somewhat rudimentary, yet undeniably—so to speak—engrossing. Ironically enough, they couldn’t have selected a more appropriate subject to utilise their honed outdoor documentary skills in a feature film debut. Despite her athletic accomplishments, the movie conveys Diana’s self-inflated grandiosity which intimates greater controversies. To sometimes illustrate her weakened mentality during the marathon swims, there are some charming fantastical elements. And there’s an irresistible suspense to the proceedings for a movie void of spoilers. With the assistance of Alexandre Desplat’s score and a soundtrack of oldies, editor Christopher Tellefsen creates a captivating pace. Rhys Ifans provides a lovably gruff seafaring type as a pleasant counterweight to the main duo, who possess an infectious chemistry like a modern-day lesbian Laurel and Hardy. As the yang to Bening’s yin, Jodie Foster delivers some of her most heartfelt work As best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll, she acts as audience surrogate and keeps Diana in check during more navel-gazing and tempestuous moments. Her welcoming presence is intended to complement Diana’s overwhelming nature.

As the title character, Bening meets the task to portray the story’s enormity with a steely determination in a full-bodied, nuanced performance.  She endears her Diana to the audience by balancing genuine dramatics with surprisingly comical moments.  With diabolically widened eyes and defiant tone, her Diana has an answer for anything, and listening isn’t her best skill. After being warned to not talk about herself and then proceeding to do so in front of a prospective date, she flatly, yet honestly ends a long monologue with, “So, tell me something about you.” When she hears news about a younger competitor encroaching upon her quest, she cooly, sarcastically asks, “Where’s a box jellyfish when you need one?” She perfects carefully delivered expletives even when she finds herself insufferable (calling herself a “stupid bitch” when she struggles to master a hotel room’s keycard). In one of the film’s more tender moments, Bening juggles the confidence Diana received from her first coach whilst simultaneously acknowledging his horrific abuse. After the catharsis, when Bonnie reassures her she’s a force, she nonchalantly, humorously replies, “I know.” There are all kinds of shades to Bening’s egomaniac here from her lighthearted, but serious demeanour in front of a group of kids to the apologetic way she grovels at a personal low, to the most moving scene, the goosebump-ridden finale.  With a body beaten by nearly 53 hours of open sea swimming on her fifth attempt over the course of 35 years, Bening’s Diana emerges from the water hobbling towards the beach near the brink of collapse only to reach into her gut and emotionally squeeze out words of inspiration.

Bening received her first Academy Award nomination for The Grifters, which filmed 35 years ago.  This year, she finds herself nominated for the fifth time, in a series of nominations which display a wide range of characters. It’s a feat not often witnessed.  The chances of her narrative resonating with enough voters along with her singular performance give her odds better than some of her competition, but still make her a longshot.  Whilst viewership metrics are difficult to measure these days, when NYAD debuted on Netflix in early November, it seemingly came and went. Best Actress contenders tend to benefit from films The Academy embraces built entirely around their character (NYAD, this is not). But, with increased exposure and an emphasis on Bening’s overdue narrative, a win from SAG-AFTRA would give her a huge boost towards a potential Oscar victory. Meeting the threshold of tens of thousands of votes is no small challenge. 

Thanks to numerous raves and an effective studio campaign, enough SAG-AFTRA voters saw it—albeit from a much smaller cohort—to nominate her (and Foster). The film itself had a respectable guild run, so the acting recognition isn’t isolated. General audiences trend towards liking NYAD more than most 2023 Oscar contenders if RT audience scores and Google reviews are any indication. The film is a crowdpleaser that plays well to most people, which can be an advantage at SAG-AFTRA. The group has also demonstrated a recent proclivity towards transformational roles depicting real people from established middle-aged industry titans (Renée Zellweger, Judy; Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye). Part of how Bening changed her overall look for the movie was the year of training she endeavoured with Olympic swimmer Rada Owen, and the countless number of hours she spent on-set swimming, which shows in her face, body, and acting. Her sun-burnt expressiveness plays to people’s emotions. Many voters who see this will be impressed with her authentic work.

Bening is also well-connected, particularly amongst older voters and this season has drawn marquee names from yesteryear for hosted events like Meg Ryan and Kathleen Turner. Her constant presence on the frontlines of the SAG-AFTRA strike, as well as chairing the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly known as The Actors Fund) I imagine has earned her good-will.  She had a few tributes recently, including receiving the Telluride Medallion honor in January (which was supposed to happen in September but the strikes prevented that),  a special Arlington Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival created especially for her, and the Distinguished Artisan award at the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild, both of which she couldn’t attend due to COVID (she has two more coming up at the Costume Designers Guild and the Sun Valley Film Festival).

It took Diana Nyad 35 years and five attempts to get two ankles out of the water and accomplish her swim.  In the last 35 years, Annette Bening has been nominated for five Academy Awards. Will she finally get two ankles on the Dolby stage as an Oscar winner? Regardless, the ongoing press the last few months for Bening may have helped facilitate her casting in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s latest feature. She also has Apples Never Fall, Liane Moriarty’s followup to Big Little Lies streaming on Peacock in March opposite Sam Neill. Bening shows no sign of letting up. Hopefully, the industry will continue to capitalise on her abilities and allow her to develop her craft in fresh and interesting ways. And, oh yeah, get her NYAD performance to the shores of Key West and award her the Oscar.  Keep swimming Bening!

Annette Bening is Oscar-nominated for Actress in a Leading Role for NYAD at the 96th Academy Awards.