2023 Oscars: Early Best Supporting Actress Predictions

We’ll be updating all of our Oscar predictions throughout the season, so keep checking IndieWire for the latest news from the 2023 Oscar race. Announced January 2023. The final vote will take place between March 2nd and March 7th, 2023. Finally, the 94th Oscars series will air Sunday, March 12 and live on ABC at 8pm ET/5pm PT.

This year’s supporting actress field pits several Oscar veterans against rival newcomers. Oscar voters sometimes reward their favorites more than once. Three-time winner Frances McDormand is back in the fray as producer and star of Sarah Polley’s Mennonite sex drama Women Talking (Plan B, UA Releasing), which also includes former Oscar nominees Rooney Mara and Jessie Buckley could all be in the Land Supporting Actress category. (The film takes place in Venice and TIFF.)

Joining Marriage Story winner Laura Dern for a second Oscar after Les Miserables is Anne Hathaway, who plays an overwrought Queens housewife in James Gray’s autofiction Cannes entry Armageddon Time (Focus), the wife of Hugh Jackman in “The Son” (SPC), Florian Zeller’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning “The Father”. Recently nominated Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) plays the second role.

Long overdue is four-time contestant Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”), who plays Steven Spielberg’s mother in the TIFF world premiere, “The Febelmans” (Universal). Patricia Clarkson was nominated for 2004’s Pieces of April and stars in Maria Schrader’s true journalism story She Said (Universal). With rave reviews out of Cannes came recent Oscar nominee Kristen Stewart, who plays a zealous scientist who has a crush on a performance artist (Viggo Mortensen) in David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future (Neon).

“Crime of the Future”

neon/screencap

Several actresses are seeking their first Oscar mentions: the famous German actress Nina Hoss stars alongside Cate Blanchett in Todd Field’s “TAR” (Focus). BAFTA-winning Jamie Lee Curtis (“Trading Places”), often credited as a horror icon or comedy actress, could have her first multi-genre broadcast nomination on the A24 breakout hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once” ( $100.7 million worldwide) received; Her co-star Stephanie Hsu as Michelle Yeoh’s gay daughter also got a nod. Zoe Kravitz had two strong roles in 2022, in Steven Soderbergh’s Hitchcock thriller Kimi (which went straight to HBO Max) and as Catwoman opposite Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves’ The Batman (Warner Bros.).

Several sprawling ensembles need to shake things up, from David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam” to Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” depending on who gets the best screen time.

The candidates are listed below in alphabetical order. No film is considered a frontrunner if I haven’t seen it.

leader
Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere at Once”)
Anne Hathaway (“Armageddon Time”)
Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere at Once”)
Zoë Kravitz (“The Batman”)
Kristen Stewart (“Future Crimes”)

candidate
Jessie Buckley (“Women Talking”)
Patricia Clarkson (“She Said”)
Laura Dern (“The Son”)
Nina Hoss (“TAR”)
Vanessa Kirby (“The Son”)
Rooney Mara (“Women Talking”)
Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”)

long shots
Gillian Anderson (“The Pale Blue Eye”)
Hong Chau (“The Whale”)
Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
Ximena Lamadrid (“Bardo”)
Lashana Lynch (“The Lady King”)
Noemie Merlant (“TAR”)
Samantha Morton (“She Said”, “The Whale”)
Julianne Nicholson (“Blonde”)
Zoe Saldana (“Amsterdam”, “Avatar: The Way of Water”)
Griselda Sicilani (“Bardo”)
Jean Smart (“Babylon”)
Anya Taylor Joy (“Amsterdam”, “The Menu”)
Olivia Wilde (“Babylon”)
Kate Winslet (“Avatar: The Way of Water”)

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