Kate Winslet's Award Potential

28 January 2009

0Comments | Comment on this Article

Kate Winslet is currently the toast of tinsel town riding high on her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild success. Following this up with an Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in The Reader what are Winslet's chances?

It's fair to say that the British actress is unlucky when it comes to the Oscars, having been nominated on five previous occasions without ever picking up the gong.

The thirty three year old made her acting breakthrough in 1994 in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, a role which brought her to the attention of filmmakers, critics and audiences.

It was only twelve months later, with her role as Marianne Dashwood in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, that the young actress received her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

But it was her role as Rose DeWitt Bukater in 1997's Titanic that shot her to worldwide fame, as well as earning her her first Best Actress nod, losing out to Helen Hunt for her performance in As Good As It Gets.

With this nomination she became the youngest person to receive two Oscar nominations at the tender age of twenty two.

Despite roles in Quills and Enigma Winslet would have to wait until 2001 for another shot at the Oscar for her role as the young Iris Murdoch in Iris, however she was to be denied again by Jennifer Connelly.

Her losing streak with the Academy continued when she missed out on the Best Actress again in 2004 for her role of Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And with her Best Actress nod for Little Children in 2006 the British actress became the youngest actor to receive five Academy Award nominations.

So far this awards season has been a massive success for the actress as she did the double at the Golden Globe awards for her roles in Holocaust drama The Reader, for which she picked up Best Supporting Actress, and Revolutionary Road, winning Best Actress.

She was recognised just a week later by the Screen Actors Guild Awards when she collected another supporting actress gong for her performance as Hanna Schmitz in The Reader, despite the film causing controversy on it's release.

Bafta recognised her performances by nominating her twice in the Best Actress category, and she is the overwhelming to pick up an award on the night.

But there will be no double at the Oscars as she received just one nomination for Best Actress for The Reader, a role which has been recognised at most awards as a supporting role. Despite being the favourite to, at long last, get her hands on an Oscar she faces tough competition from Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep who have both had some award success in recent weeks.

Revolutionary Road is released 30th January

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

0Comments | Be the first to comment!