By Patrick Shanley
Managing Editor
One of the tightest races in this year’s Oscar season is that for the best actress statuette. There are past winners such as Cate Blanchett, who earned a best actress Oscar for Blue Jasmine in 2014 and a best supporting actress award for The Aviator in 2004, and Jennifer Lawrence, who won best actress in Silver Linings Playbook in 2013, previous nominees like Saoirse Ronan, who earned a best supporting actress nom for Atonement in 2008, and first-time nominees Brie Larson, who plays a young mother held captive in Room, and Charlotte Rampling, who plays a wife whose 45th wedding anniversary is upended by the arrival of a mysterious letter in 45 Years.
The most interesting factoid about this year’s best actress race, however, is the disparity in age between the competitors. Three of the five women are aged 26 years or below, with Ronan at 21, Lawrence at 25, and Larson at 26 while Rampling, who is 69 now but will be 70 by the night of the Oscars, is enjoying her first nomination and would be the third oldest winner in history if she pulls it off.
Giving that Blanchett just won the Oscar two years ago, the chances are that she may not be as high a priority as her competition in the Academy voters eyes. Likewise, Lawrence is a recent winner who may suffer from the same fate. Another factor to keep an eye on is the fact that the three younger nominees may hurt each other’s chances and split the votes. That leaves Rampling in a great position to pull off the win.
This is the first time in Oscar history that there has been three actresses under the age of 26 competing against a nominee of 69 years or older.
The closest any other year has come was the 85th Academy Awards in 2013 when Lawrence, who was 22 at the time, won the Oscar and Quvenzhané Wallis, who was 9, was nominated for Beasts of the Southern Wild. They competed against 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva who earned a nomination for her performance in Amour.
What does all this mean? Well, though Rampling may not seem like the frontrunner, there is certainly a lot of factors working in her favor. However, Larson has won both the Golden Globe and the Critics’ Choice Award in the past two weeks, so Rampling is far from safe bet. Only time will tell.
