OUTSTANDING FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird in “CAROL”

Rooney Mara as Therese Belivet in “CAROL”

Elisabeth Moss as Catherine Hewitt in “QUEEN OF EARTH”

Charlotte Rampling as Kate Mercer in “45 YEARS”

Saoirse Ronan as Eilis Lacey in “BROOKLYN”

AND THE WINNER IS:

CHARLOTTE RAMPLING AS KATE MERCER IN “45 YEARS”

This is the first win and fourth nomination for Charlotte Rampling for her performance as Kate Mercer in 45 Years. She was previously nominated for her performances in Under the Sand (2001), Swimming Pool (2003) & Lemming (2006).

Before I start to talk about how great Charlotte Rampling’s work is I want to just want to say thank you to all the film creators of 2015 who gave so many actresses great on screen roles that even to narrow it down to five names was hard. Some women that were overlooked but easily just as deserving included: Nina Hoss (Phoenix), Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), Sidse Babett Knudsen (The Duke of Burgundy), Juliette Binoche (Clouds of Sils Maria), Mya Taylor (Tangerine), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Blythe Danner (I’ll See You in My Dreams), Brie Larson (Room), Arielle Holmes (Heaven Knows What), Cate Blanchett (Truth), Melissa McCarthy (Spy), Teyonah Parris (Chi-Raq), Sandra Bullock (Our Brand is Crisis) & Anna Kendrick (The Last 5 Years) to name only a few if you consider it a few. It really was a strong year for leading female performances.

Anyway returning back to the winner Charlotte Rampling gives truly the greatest male/female performance of 2015 that I could go on forever talking about her turn. The film starts and ends with Rampling and she fully owns the screen every second she acts on it. The performance is so emotionally raw physically and mentally as we see the full body performance from Rampling due to her great direction from Haigh who lets the camera capture just about everything she is doing and really makes the performance even more captivating. Rampling’s Kate doesn’t explode emotionally really ever and when the character breaks down in the photo slide scene and ending dance scene it’s all down to Rampling and her wonderful gifts that make her work the years best. Rampling has been an underrated talent for decades giving such wonderful turns in films such as The Night Porter (1974), The Verdict (1982) and Under the Sand (2001) and how grateful I am for everyone who even bothered to watch this film because you get to see an actress at her peak fully owning every second of this film.