Back in November, Anne Thompson, Clayton Davis and Scott Feinberg all had, and still do, Wakanda Forever’s Angela Bassett at the very top of their Best Supporting Actress contenders.
I was puzzled by these predictions. After “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was screened, barely anybody was really buzzing about Bassett’s performance as Queen Ramonda. Now we had three influential pundits predicting her to not only get nominated, but, quite possibly, to win the Oscar?!
Los Angeles Times awards columnist Glenn Whipp is also now banging the drums for Bassett. In fact, Whipp believes it’ll be a two-way race between Bassett and Jamie Lee Curtis. Madness!
As respected as Bassett is in the industry, her film is not universally liked and the Academy nominating a performance from a Marvel movie seems a little too far-fetched for my liking. However, all these pundits are keeping Bassett in the race. A nomination is not impossible because of the punditry backing her up.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but, if Bassett does get the Oscar nod, it would be the first time an acting performance from an MCU movie ever got Oscar-nominated.
In November, Bassett was #11 on Gold Derby’s 40+ expert consensus, now she’s #5. The rest of the top five consists of Jessie Buckley (Women Talking), Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere) and her co-star Stephanie Hsu.
If it were up to me, Kerry Condon would be the runaway winner of this otherwise very weak Oscar category.