Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Streep: 16 Nominations for Strong Roles, Not Memorable Films

As of this year, Meryl Streep has been nominated for 16 Oscars, 13 for Best Lead Actress and 3 for supporting. Far more than any other actress. Katherine Hepburn comes behind her with 12 nominees.



Yet, Meryl Streep, despite her multiple lead nominations has only one the lead actress trophy once (Sophie's Choice, pictured above) and the supporting trophy once (Kramer vs. Kramer).



I've started to notice...Streep gets nominated for many of her roles, but her films do not get nominated for best picture. This has to say something.



So I thought I would love and see how many of her 16 Academy Award nominations correlated to best picture nominations.



1979 - The Deer Hunter - (Supporting) - Film won best picture

1980 - Kramer vs. Kramer - (Supporting) - Won Supporting Actress Trophy - Film won best picture

1982 - The French Lieutant's Woman

1983 - Sophie's Choice - Won Lead Actress Trophy

1984 - Silkwood

1986 - Out of Africa - Film Won Best Picture

1988 - Ironweed

1989 - Evil Angels

1991 - Postcards from The Edge

1996 - The Bridges of Madison County

1999 - One True Thing

2000 - Music of the Heart

2003 - Adaptation - (Supporting)

2007 - The Devil Wears Prada

2009 - Doubt

2010 - Julie & Julia



Of Meryl Streep's 16 film nominations only three have been nominated for best picture. Both of them won the award (The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, Out of Africa).


But it makes you wonder about Streep's ability to pick projects that do not just feature strong women, but also feature strong scripts and crews who can make not just a good role, but an important film.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Onion satirized this very point back in August of last year: http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/name_one_masterpiece_of_cinema. And Newsweek posted an article about this same issue in the past couple of days: http://photo.newsweek.com/oscar-roundtable/2010/young-film-audiences-dont-get-meryl-streep.html.

Luke said...

It's actually three... if you'll recall, Kramer vs. Kramer also won Best Picture... but yes, this is a very good point. She's always the star of her movies, never the films themselves, it seems...

Andrew K. said...

I remember back at the 80th Oscars watching the montage of all BP winners I was wondering where was Katharine Hepburn, and then I realised that none of her films have ever won that prize, which I found strange. Streep has sooooooo many nominations her actress nods can't always correlate to the film's nods but starring in three BP winners is VERY impressive.

Lorna said...

there is some good stuff in there, regardless of the awards

billybil said...

In the past 31 years (since DEER HUNTER won Best Picture) 22 women have been nominated for an Oscar for appearing in the winning Best Picture.

Deer Hunter - Meryl Streep nom SA
Kramer vs Kramer - Meryl Streep won SA
Kramer vs Kramer - Jane Alexander nom SA
Ordinary People-Mary Tyler Moore nom Best Actress
Terms of Endearment - Shirley MacLaine - won Best Actress
Terms of Endearment - Debra Winger nom Best Actress
Out of Africa - Meryl Streep nom Best Actress
Driving Miss Daisy - Jessica Tandy - won Best Actress
Dance With Wolves - Mary McDonnell - nom SA
Silence of the Lambs - Jodie Foster - won Best Actress
English Patient - Kristin Scott Thomas - nom Best Actress
English Patient - Juliette Binoche - won SA
Titanic - Kate Winslet - nom Best Actress
Titanic - Gloria Stuart - nom SA
Shakespeare in Love - Gwyneth Paltrow - won Best Actress
Shakespeare in Love - Judi Dench - won SA
American Beauty - Annette Bening - nom Best Actress
Beautiful Mind - Jennifer Connolly - nom SA
Chicago - Renee Zellweger - nom Best Actress
Chicago - Catherine Zeta Jones - won SA
Chicago - Queen Latifah - nom SA
Million Dollar Baby - Hilary Swank - won Best Actress

NOTE: Meryl Streep is the only actress to have appeared in a role deemed worthy of a nomination in more than one Best Picture in those 31 years.

So, in fact, a strong argument can be made that she is, in fact, the BEST at choosing Memorable Films!!

Please note that only 15 Best Picture winners over the past 31 years have had any role deemed worthy of a nomination and only 11 of those had leading roles.

RC said...

@ Luke, Andrew, Lorna & Billy -

I stand corrected. 3 of her nominations are correlated to best picture wins.

I have some further thoughts on the topic, but I definitly appreciate your perspective you have laid out BillyBil, you've backed into this thought process a different way.