HLS Movie Awards Nominees: Best Actress
Welcome back to HLS Movie Award Nominees, this week we are doing the best performances by Actresses in 2020. For those who do not remember last year, or are new to reading my work, for the best actress / actor categories we do not separate them on supporting or leading. If someone puts in a better performance with 10 minutes of screen time versus someone with an hour plus? The better performance deserves the recognition. Now this does not mean we cut down the number of people nominated trying to fit a certain number, if we thought they had an award worthy performance they get nominated, we could end up with three or thirty nominees makes no difference. Excellence deserves recognition.
A secondary reminder movies had to have been released IN 2020 to be considered for HLS Movie Awards, so no matter how much we loved Nomadland or Minari they are not eligible until the 2021 HLS Movie Awards. And thirdly as always with these list they will be in alphabetical order not in any form of ranking. Please share with your friends and hit the subscribe button at the top to sign up for email alerts for every new blog! Now on to the nominations!
Haley Bennett - Swallow
Haley Bennett put on an incredible performance that not near enough people are talking about. Her portrayal of a newly wed newly pregnant woman who feels like she is losing control of her life and develops a Pica disorder as she slowly starts eating more and more dangerous household items. The outwardly calm yet unnerving performance by Haley Bennett has you rooting for her but keeps you uneasy, unsettled in your seat as she falls further into this disorder as she fights for control of her own life.
Olivia Cooke - Sound of Metal
This movie is outstanding and everyone should watch it for the two leads but sadly Olivia Cooke is not getting near enough credit that she deserves. Olivia Cooke put on a performance of details, details matter. She shape shifts throughout the film from this metal rocker recovering addict to this worldly woman off screen and we should be off put by it, but Cooke's delivery of the details that are revealed through her scratching is heartbreaking.
Viola Davis - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Viola Davis has been a year in year out top tier actor in the entirety of the acting world and I am tired of that not being an established fact in every home. If she is in a movie, her performance alone is worth the price of admission. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is no exception, playing the "Mother of Blues" Viola owns the stage, owns every room she steps into and is only challenged by her ambitious trumpet player (hint for actors nominee). Viola Davis over powers everyone she is in a scene with, not in a distracting way that takes away from the movie, but in a way that sucks you in.
Riley Keough - The Lodge
Riley Keough was not an expected contender from a movie that was never going to be a contender but she shines through. Riley Keough unravels this dense onion of a character that has no rights to be in a movie this small. Keough plays a soon to be step mother who is left alone with her soon to be step children in a secluded cabin (lodge) in the middle of a snowstorm at Christmas. But as the movie rolls along we find out she is the orphan of a family involved in (SPOILERS) a ritual mass suicide and she was the lone survivor as a child. This DARK backstory is unveiled and the consequence for those involved is dire. Riley Keough plays very close to the chest with certain emotions while lashing out in others this surprise performance was amazing.
Wunmi Mosaku - His House
Wunmi Mosaku plays Rial Majur a refugee from South Sudan who barely escaped with her husband who spends months in government facilities before finally gets to settle in a small English town as they are haunted by their past and present. Excellent movie by the way it is on Netflix you should watch it if you are in the mood for a little fright. We thought both Mosaku and Sope Dirisu were great in this movie but Mosaku really stood out playing both the horror elements of the film but also the sweet endearing moments of flashbacks and the vast array of emotions she just nails over and over we could not leave her off this list.
Elisabeth Moss - The Invisible Man
Elisabeth Moss is not a newcomer like some others on this list she has been a career actor for a long time and really hit it off popularity wise first in Mad Men then exploded in popularity staring in The Handmaid's Tale, but this year was just an insane one as she has not one but two leading roles that found their way onto this list. Playing Cecilia Kass in The Invisible Man was a gut wrenching twisted look on abusive relationships and gas lighting, and just wow was Elisabeth Moss outstanding. Zero disrespect to anyone else in this movie but she could have acted against stick figures and this movie would have worked, I mean it feels like a third of the movie she is talking to an empty room anyways.
Elisabeth Moss - Shirley
In her second role on this list that also deserves praise is such a vastly different character you have to applaud the skill that took to do both roles within the year and to do them both so well elevates Elisabeth Moss to another level. In Shirley she plays Shirley Jackson a famous horror writer whose insane reclusive nature stands toe to toe with her writing acclaim. Moss gives this vindictive, creepy, controlling performance that very easily could have been revealed to be the abusive relationship that her character Kass was trying to get away from in The Invisible Man.
Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman
Amy Ryan - Lost Girls
In another one of hundreds of movies that gets produced by Netflix but never pumped to the public in advertisements Amy Ryan plays Mari Gilbert a mother of a daughter who has gone missing. Mari Gilbert spends her days like any mother would obsessing over finding her daughter and finding out what happened to her. Frustrated with the lack of police help she delves into her own investigation that reveals a dark reality in this small Long Island community based on real events. Amy Ryan's performance as Mari Gilbert is a force of nature that drags viewers through this dark story as she drags the police along forcing them to investigate.
Amanda Seyfried - Mank
Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies was an absolute delight, she seems like she was built for these types of films. If Amanda Seyfried was acting in the 40s-60s we would be regarding her as one of the greatest actresses of all time. Seyfried just feels so perfectly in her groove in this kind of role. She needs to do more of these classical film period pieces. In a movie led by Oscar winner Gary Oldman, Seyfried stands out in every time she is on screen.
Thank you so much for reading! As always please hit the subscribe button at the top and sign up for email updates so you do not miss a single blog! Hit me up on twitter if you have any questions or just want to chat movies!
EDIT: Here is the HLS Movie Awards!
