Top 5 Female Oscar Snubs

5. Samantha Morton

Best Supporting Actress, Minority Report (2002)

As the enigmatic precog Agatha, Morton plays a frightening symbol of what the future could become. Seeking to avenge her mother’s murder, Agatha is the heroine in a film where anti-heroes are the norm, and her character helps Tom Cruise beat the system.

4. Maggie Gyllenhaal

Best Actress, Secretary (2002)

She may be more famous as Jake Gyllenhaal’s older sister, but Maggie Gyllenhaal’s performance in Secretary shows that she is talented in her own right. It’s a powerful character study about personal dysfunction and the power of submission, as she becomes the submissive partner of eccentric attorney James Spader. Her devotion – which could also be argued as being a stalker or as a weak-willed woman – holds up, and her character Lee is one of the screen’s premier female anti-heroes.

3. Jennifer Connelly

Best Actress, House of Sand and Fog (2003)

It could be said that her performance is better – and certainly just as heart-wrenching – as her Oscar-winning performance in A Beautiful Mind. As Kathy, Connelly is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic whose ignorance cause her to lose her father’s house. Connelly is brilliant as an addict, but even more as a seductress, luring married policeman Lester (Ron Eldard) into causing trouble for the Behrani family. I doubt Jennifer Connelly’s performance would have beat Charlize Theron, but man, it would have been closer than it was had she been nominated.

2. Mila Kunis

Best Supporting Actress, Black Swan (2010)

I think the only reason (as fickle as it sounds) that Mila Kunis was snubbed was because of her role as Meg Griffin. Regardless, Kunis’ character Lily is the embodiment of the “femme fatale” – or is it all part of Natalie Portman’s hallucination? One of the most psychologically chilling performances, Lily is hypersexual, and certainly convinced that she could be Nina. Her “bad girl” image is a perfect contrast to Nina’s conservative, controlled image which gradually falls apart. We get to see Kunis as a bad girl, and it’s a chilling portrayal.

1. Kate Winslet

Best Actress, Revolutionary Road (2008)

Kate and Leo re-unite, and it’s evident the chemistry is still there between the two. I have no problem with Kate Winslet winning Best Actress, but this is the movie she should have won for, instead of The Reader. Her character April Wheeler starts as an enthusiastic and idealistic young wife, whose love and spirit wane over the course of twenty-plus years. Her scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio indicate that even when they aren’t living pseudo-happily ever after (a la Titanic), there is still an amazing camaraderie and friendship and deep-seated love and respect between them. Why she was nominated for The Reader instead eludes me, as she proves just how fraudulent and farcical the American can be, and often is.