One of the few certainties going into the 2023 awards season is that Cate Blanchett will receive her eighth Academy Award nomination for her celebrated performance in Todd Field’s “Tár,” about the first female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. Blanchett won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, and critics have been raving for weeks about her turn as Lydia Tár. Leah Greenblatt says in Entertainment Weekly, “The movie belongs to Blanchett, in a turn so exacting and enormous that it feels less like a performance than a full-body possession,” and Peter Bradshaw says in Guardian, “What a colossal performance from Cate Blanchett.” With the actress poised to become front and center in the upcoming awards season, let’s look back at Blanchett’s seven previous Oscar races.
Her first Oscar win came in 2005 when she took the gold prize for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in “The Aviator,” directed by Martin Scorsese. Her victory came after voters were initially spreading the love in the category at the precursor ceremonies, Natalie Portman winning for “Closer” at the Golden Globe Awards and Virginia Madsen winning for “Sideways” at the Critics’ Choice Awards. But then Blanchett took the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she won yet again at the BAFTA Awards. Although “Million Dollar Baby” passed “The Aviator” that season to become the Academy Awards victor for Best Director and Best Picture, Blanchett became her movie’s most high-profile Oscar win of the night. Academy voters love awarding actors who play real-life figures—think Helen Mirren in “The Queen” and Renée Zellweger in “Judy”—and Blanchett’s turn as Hepburn was beloved enough to get her the victory.
The second Oscar win for Blanchett came in 2014 when she claimed the gold trophy for Best Actress for her performance in “Blue Jasmine,” playing a New York socialite who arrives in San Francisco to impose on her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins). This time there was no doubt Blanchett would win the Academy Award as she completely swept the season, taking every major precursor prize from the Golden Globe Award to the SAG Award and everything in between. Sandra Bullock gave a terrific performance in “Gravity,” and Amy Adams delighted awards voters with her turn in “American Hustle,” winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, but Blanchett’s tour-de-force role in “Blue Jasmine” couldn’t be denied. Director Woody Allen had an excellent track record of winning his actresses Academy Awards, from Diane Keaton in “Annie Hall” to Penelope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” and Blanchett became another name added to the list.
Although she has been a familiar face at the Oscars going back to the late 1990s, Blanchett doesn’t always win—in fact, she has lost the Academy Award five times to date. Her first loss occurred in 1999 when she was nominated for Best Actress for “Elizabeth,” a role that won her the BAFTA Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. However, she struggled to compete with the Miramax awards campaign machine that went into overdrive that season for “Shakespeare in Love,” which defeated Saving Private Ryan for the Best Picture Oscar. The film’s lead Gwyneth Paltrow won the SAG Award for Best Actress before ultimately taking the Academy Award. Her second loss occurred in 2007 when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for “Notes on a Scandal.” Blanchett was nominated all over the place for her acclaimed turn in the drama co-starring Judi Dench, but she couldn’t overtake Jennifer Hudson, who swept that awards season for her celebrated performance in “Dreamgirls.”
In 2008 Blanchett pulled off the rare feat of being double-nominated at the Oscars, and not winning either award. It happened to Sigourney Weaver in 1989 when she was nominated for both “Working Girl” and “Gorillas in the Mist,” it happened to Emma Thompson in 1994 when she was recognized for both “In the Name of the Father” and “The Remains of the Day,” and it most recently happened to Scarlett Johannson in 2020 when she was nominated for both “Jojo Rabbit” and “Marriage Story.” Her best shot to win at the 2008 Oscars was for Best Supporting Actress for her turn as one of the many Bob Dylans in “I’m Not There,” since almost every precursor ceremony picked a different winner in the category — Ruby Dee at SAG Awards, Amy Ryan at Critics’ Choice, and Blanchett at the Golden Globes. But without a clear favorite going into the Oscars ceremony, a stunned Tilda Swinton took the gold trophy for her performance in “Michael Clayton.” Blanchett was also nominated for Best Actress that night for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” but that race was always coming down to Julie Christie, who won the SAG Award for “Away from Her,” and Marion Cotillard, who won the BAFTA Award for “La Vie en Rose.” Blanchett can be seen clapping uproariously when Cotillard is announced as the Oscar winner for Best Actress.
Blanchett’s most recent Oscar loss came in 2016 when she was nominated for Best Actress for her performance in “Carol,” directed by Todd Haynes. It’s the story of a female photographer (Rooney Mara) who enters a relationship with an older woman (Blanchett) in 1950s New York. Blanchett was once again praised for her acting, Cody Dericks in Next Best Picture saying, “Blanchett masterfully portrays a woman who wants to be so much more than is allowed of her, expertly playing a grounded yet mysterious character.” Alas, Blanchett had just won the Oscar for “Blue Jasmine” two years prior, and thus Academy voters chose to award Brie Larson for her performance in “Room” after Larson had taken the Golden Globe Award, Critics’ Choice Award, and SAG Award. However, in early 2023 it will have been nine years since Blanchett won her last Academy Award for Best Actress—could she take another gold trophy for her hailed turn in “Tár?” Donald Clark says in Irish Times, “Few will resist Blanchett’s bravura, occasionally monstrous performance,” and Sophia Ciminello says in AwardsWatch that Blanchett “delivers a nuanced performance for the ages.” Yes, it appears Blanchett’s eighth Oscar race is inevitable—and it’s coming very soon.
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