One of the brighter spots of the year so far, and one of the few likely year-end awards contenders to have been released to date, is Lisa Chodolenko’s “The Kids Are All Right.” Easily the director’s best work, the film’s long been thought to be a near-certainty for one of the ten Best Picture slots at the Academy Awards, in addition to delivering nominations for Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, who play the lesbian couple at the film’s center.
The only question has been whether one of the pair — most likely Moore — would be pushed by Focus into the Best Supporting Actress category, in order to increase the likelihood of both being nominated. However, the distributor has confirmed to EW (via Vulture) that they will campaign for both Bening and Moore for Best Actress during the awards season.
It’s certainly the right decision on merit alone: neither role is measurably bigger than the other, and both actresses are superb in the film. But it’s a risk: no film has won two Best Actress nominations since 1991’s “Thelma & Louise,” and the pair could well cannibalize each other’s votes, leaving both out in the cold. Bening’s old nemesis Hilary Swank FTW!
However, despite the strong field this year (and the negligible buzz on Swank’s “Conviction” makes her something of an outsider), with Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”), Lesley Manville (“Another Year”), Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”), Carey Mulligan (“Never Let Me Go”), Anne Hathaway (“Love & Other Drugs”), Michelle Williams (“Blue Valentine”), Naomi Watts (“Fair Game”), Sally Hawkins (“Made In Dagenham”), Diane Lane (“Secretariat”) and Helen Mirren (“The Tempest”) all possible nominees, if any film in recent memory can pull off two nominations, it’s this one.
