As Sarah just wrote in her post about the actress contenders at the Gotham Awards last night, this is one of the most competitive Best Actress Oscar races we’ve seen in years. So many strong performances, only five spots, no clear frontrunner for the win at this point in the race. 

 

A few months ago, when Challengers was released, Zendaya had some early buzz. You’ll recall, Challengers was supposed to come out last year and was scheduled to world premiere in Venice, until the Hollywood strikes forced studios and distributors to reset the calendar. It was thought at the time that coming out of the festival, Challengers could be in the race. Pushing the film to the following spring definitely changed that trajectory. At this point, given how crowded the Best Actress category is, Zendaya is looking like a longshot for a nomination. But even if she’s not singled out for an individual nomination, she still could be involved in the Oscar festivities because remember, she was in TWO major film releases this year: Challengers and also Dune Part 2, which is expected to be nominated in several tech categories and, possibly, Best Picture. That’s how impressive her year has been so far. 

 

And she was rewarded for it by the Gothams with the Spotlight Tribute Award last night. Josh O’Connor gave the introduction – you can watch his remarks here– and this is her acceptance speech: 

I love that she opens by thanking the crew, the community that makes the entire production. And she also refers to her on-camera colleagues as “my fellow cast members”. This is a pet peeve I don’t complain about as often as I used to but longtime readers of this site will remember that I can’t with “my cast” unless it’s coming from a director. Another reason to adore Zendaya, she’s not a “my cast” person, or at least she wasn’t last night. 

 

Z is wearing custom Louis Vuitton. It’s not to the level of slay we are accustomed to getting from her but I also don’t think slay was the goal for the night. One of the things that’s underappreciated about Zendaya is that she’s judicious about when and where she goes full-out. There’s no need to peacock at the Gothams, and she didn’t. 

 

While Zendaya’s nomination seems more remote, Angelina Jolie’s chances at a Best Actress Oscar nomination, right now at least, are more encouraging. She is predicted, at the moment, to be one of the five names called on nomination morning – but, again, at the risk of sounding too repetitive, this is such a tight race, there are so many worthy candidates, nothing is guaranteed, no one can take much for granted on the campaign, and it would be unwise to say anyone is a lock for anything. 

Angelina received the Performer Tribute Award at the Gothams last night, presented to her by her director, Pablo Larraín. As we have said over the years, the events preceding the Oscars are often an opportunity to audition for Oscars, especially at the microphone. This is where potential nominees can test drive their speeches, and show Oscar voters what they’d do with their time should the get the votes to win. 

Angelina’s speech focused on Pablo initially, speaking about his cinematic inspirations and how it was his mother who was his first artistic mentor. She then spoke about her own mother, who encouraged in her creative curiosity, connecting that experience to her own as a mother and how her daughter is now working towards a career in theatre. And all that led to advocacy, because she made part of her speech about how young people in schools don’t have enough access to art and how “concerning” it is that funding for art programs is being cut. As you can imagine, that played well in this room at this event that celebrated independent film. 

 

From there though she related it all back to Maria Callas, her training, her discipline, her devotion to the art of opera. She was speaking to the artistic community, past, present, and future, as an artist herself. But without centering herself. It’s exactly the kind of message the Oscar Academy would respond to, if they were listening. That, of course, is the big question. 

The other takeaway from her speech is how shy she is. There’s an image that’s out there of Angelina that’s been in place from the moment she became famous – that she’s a tough loner, that she’s spikey and weird, intimidating and even mean. That perception, of course, was only reinforced during the Team Aniston v Team Jolie era. 

 

That was the gossip narrative for over decade and as we have seen, gossip says a lot more about who we are than about its subject. It was America’s Sweetheart on one side and the American Vixen on the other. In truth, both of these women are much more dimensional and complicated and whole than those derivatives. And I suspect the Angelina who gave this speech is how she relates to Maria Callas, who was also misunderstood in her time. 

As for her dress – this is Pierre Balmain archival from the 60s, well within her style wheelhouse… and I LOVE it. Because while it is definitely the kind of sack dress that she’s fond of, this one is quite special, and it sets up to my personal preference: baggy with structure! with the top layer coming to a V in front over a longer more streamlined layer below and, surprise!, a great shoe choice!

Angelina Jolie at the 34th Annual Gotham Awards held at Cipriani Wall Street on December 2, 2024 in New York, New York

 

Let us know your thoughts on Angelina, Zendaya, and all the looks from last night's Gothams at The Squawk. (App link here)