Ever since we first saw glimpses of Kristen Stewart’s depiction of Princess Diana in Spencer, there’s been a ton of buzz surrounding the idea of the actress earning her first Oscar nomination and even being the frontrunner to take home this year’s Best Actress trophy. Through the first half of award season, Stewart has picked up a Golden Globe nomination alongside a number of other award considerations. With about a month until Oscar nominations are released, there’s been a shakeup in the race that could signal a changing tide for her chances.
On Wednesday morning, the nominations for the Screen Actors Guild were announced, and in a surprising upset, Kristen Stewart is not among the nominees. Check out the five actresses who are being recognized for their 2021 performances:
| Jessica Chastain | The Eyes of Tammy Faye |
| Olivia Colman | The Lost Daughter |
| Lady Gaga | House of Gucci |
| Jennifer Hudson | Respect |
| Nicole Kidman | Being the Ricardos |
While the SAG Awards and Oscars don’t always pick the same winners, for the past twenty-six years, the winner for Best Actress at the Oscars has been a nominee or winner in the coinciding category. With Kristen Stewart now shut out of the list of nominees, her chances are much thinner of taking home the Best Actress Oscar this year. However, it is still possible she could nab her first-ever Oscar nomination for Spencer.
The two shakeups that have entered the Best Actress race late in the season are Olivia Colman's Leda Caruso form Netflix’s drama The Lost Daughter and Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos, where she portrayed Lucille Ball. Jessica Chastain’s Tammy Faye in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Lady Gaga’s Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci and Jennifer Hudson’s Aretha Franklin in Respect have long been contenders, but it’s a stacked year for leading female performances.
The Oscars are notorious for awarding trophies to performances based on real people, and this category is absolutely packed with these types of performances. Among the SAG nominees, Olivia Colman is the only actress who did not play an actual person. Other frontrunners who were not given SAG nominations in the category are Rachel Zegler for West Side Story, Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza and Emilia Jones for CODA.
It should also be noted that all five of the nominees in this category have been nominated for Oscars before, whereas Kristen Stewart has yet to be recognized by the Academy. This veteran quality all five women have to awards season could have factored into them being picked over Stewart’s Princess Diana.
It’s a shame, because while Kristen Stewart’s performance is a portrayal of the late royal, it’s also through the lens of a unique drama that does not follow the typical biopic format. I’m disappointed that the 31-year-old actress could be shut out of awards season going forward despite pulling off one of the best performances of 2021, along with having an already impressive twenty-year body of work. We’ll be clutching our pearls in anticipation of the Oscar nominations, which are set to be announced on February 8.
