Things just got interesting in the Oscar race for Best Actress. Our sister site Variety has confirmed that Michelle Williams will be campaigned in the lead category for her role as Mitzi Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans” by Universal Pictures, rather than Best Supporting Actress, shocking many awards pundits.
Mitzi is the mother of the lead character Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) and is based on Spielberg’s real-life mother, while also a pianist-turned-housewife. Since the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Williams has received rave reviews, being the standout actor from the movie with Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood calling her “gut-wrenchingly great,” and Kyle Buchanan of The New York Times praising that she is “attacking this part like someone who knows she’s been handed her signature role.”
Williams is an Emmy winner for “Fosse/Verdon” and has four previous Oscar nominations: two in lead (“Blue Valentine” in 2011 and “My Week With Marilyn in 2012) and two in supporting (“Brokeback Mountain” in 2006 and “Manchester by the Sea” in 2017). Before “The Fabelmans” even screened, she was considered the default frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress due to her overdue narrative and the magnitude of the film, which has become an immediate Best Picture frontrunner, winning the TIFF People’s Choice Award. The winner of that has gone to receive a Best Picture nomination the last 15 years (with the exception of 2011), and five of those winners resulted in a win at the Oscars (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Green Book,” and “Nomadland”). With all the stellar reviews Williams has been getting and the sentiment behind it, many have assumed and endorsed that this would be the year that she would nab her Oscar win in the context of the Best Supporting Actress category.
Many who have seen “The Fabelmans” at TIFF state that the story revolves around Sammy and is told from his perspective, detailing his childhood and his parents’ divorce as well as the inspiration of him wanting to become a filmmaker. There are large segments in the two and a half hour film where Williams is not present, and that she goes in and out of it, similar to Patricia Arquette in “Boyhood,” who won Best Supporting Actress for that movie. Despite that, whenever Williams does appear, she has numerous memorable scenes that showcases her abilities, with the word being that she ranges from huge emotional outbursts to quiet calmness and affection. It has all the elements of the classic, baity performance that the Oscars usually tend to reward in the supporting category.
Prior to the announcement, Gold Derby had Williams in the top slot for Best Supporting Actress where the other contenders were Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley for “Women Talking,” Sadie Sink and Hong Chau for “The Whale,” and Kerry Condon for “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Now Williams will compete against what is a massive group of strong competition including Cate Blanchett (“Tár”), Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”), Margot Robbie (“Babylon”), Viola Davis (“The Woman King”), Olivia Colman (“Empire of Light”), Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Ana de Armas (“Blonde”).
Even though it seems that Williams will have a tougher hill to climb, actresses that are not in the center of their movies have championed in the past years such as Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball” in 2002, Nicole Kidman for “The Hours” in 2003, Reese Witherspoon for “Walk The Line” in 2006 and Olivia Colman for “The Favourite” in 2019. And if “The Fabelmans” can maintain its frontrunner status throughout the season, it only benefits Williams.
Additionally, despite the push for lead, it does not preclude her being nominated in the supporting actress race. There have been a few instances where Oscar voters have disregarded the campaign and nominated actors in the other category instead, such as Kate Winslet for “The Reader” in lead and most recently LaKeith Stanfield for “Judas and the Black Messiah” in supporting. Precursors like the Golden Globes and BAFTAs have also taken control of some category placements like in 2016 when the Globes put Rooney Mara for “Carol” and Alicia Vikander for “The Danish Girl” in lead instead of supporting and BAFTA did the same with the latter. While both actresses still ended up being nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars per the campaign, the precursors and critics groups could have an influence the way it did when Winslet won for “The Reader” in lead at BAFTA after winning supporting at all the previous award shows, which led her to a Best Actress win at the Oscars.
Both actress races are now ones to keep an eye out, with Best Actress welcoming some company in Williams, and it has yet to be announced what categories her co-stars LaBelle, Paul Dano (who plays Mitzi’s husband Burt) and Judd Hirsch (who plays Sammy’s uncle Boris) will contend for. With the switch, it is the perfect time for readers to update their Oscar predictions, most significantly in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, and see if Williams can still triumph at the Oscars for “The Fabelmans.”
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