Who I Would Love To See Become The Next Amy Madigan

Our lovable online cinephile pal Nathaniel Rogers is running an interesting poll on his site The Film Experience right now. In the wake of Amy Madigan’s Best Supporting Actress win last month, she not only notched a major industry victory for the horror genre, but she also concluded an incredible comeback arc after a decades-long dry spell with the Academy. Forty years. It was literally forty years between her first (and, for longer than I’ve been alive, only) Oscar nomination for Twice in a Lifetime and her win for Weapons; the longest-ever gap between acting nominations for a woman and behind only Judd Hirsch and Henry Fonda as the longest for any screen performer.

This has given fans of one-time-only nominees a ray of hope in the face of not-super-great odds for a second nomination or even a win. Still longshots, to be clear — according to Nathaniel, actually, roughly two-thirds of all first-time nominees for acting Academy Awards never receive a second nomination. But still! No one thought Madigan would ever return to the awards beat in the 2020s, and yet here she is, holding a little gold man of her own. This has prompted a question from Nathaniel to his readers that I would like to share with all of you:

Who do you, personally, want to see become the next Amy Madigan?

Specifically, who would you like to see mount a comeback and actually win an Oscar decades after her first nomination? In order to qualify, the actress must…

• Have received only one previous Oscar nomination which did not result in a win,
• Their nomination was received at least 20 years ago, and
• They are at least 50 years of age.

Here is a list of all the women who are eligible for this distinction, and you are more than welcome to head on over to Nathaniel’s poll before tomorrow night to rank who you would be most pleased to see return to the Oscar stage after a long time away.

I submitted my choices already. Below is a list of the eligible women who I, personally, would be most pleased to see become the next Amy Madigan in the near future:

10) Salma Hayek — Because she went through a hell of Harvey Weinstein’s making to produce Frida, the vehicle for her only Academy Award nomination, and deserves more raw, substantive roles like it as she approaches her sixties.

9) Minnie Driver — Because she is always a delight whenever she appears onscreen, yet somehow remains frustratingly underemployed by an industry that doesn’t comprehend just how much we all enjoy seeing her in a movie.

8) Virginia Madsen — Because it was already a miracle for a woman her age to experience her breakout in Hollywood during the mid-aughts, should have won that year, and has been steadily working as a reliable supporting actress in the decades since.

7) Chloë Sevigny — Because despite ridicule and humiliation for agreeing to that scene in The Brown Bunny, she has emerged from it with her head held high*, has an estimable career on television and streaming, and deserves another Boys Don’t Cry-caliber role.

6) Imelda Staunton — Because she was amazing in Vera Drake, delivered a villainous witch performance in 2007 at least as iconic as Madigan’s in my eyes, and it would be nice to see more of the Paddington series cast win Oscars.

5) Juliette Lewis — Because she delivered one of the most astonishing child performances of the 1990s and has since become a delightfully energetic and unhinged character actress as an adult. She keeps getting close to a second nod.

4) Toni Collette — Because I think she should already have one for her first and only nomination, and it feels so weird for her not to have been nominated a second time after receiving Critics Choice, Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG awards in the years since.

3) Patricia Clarkson — Because it is embarrassing for Pieces of April to be the sole Academy Award nomination for one of the most consistent and prolific character actresses of her generation, and she has shown no signs of slowing down on the screen or the stage.

2) Marianne Jean Baptiste — Because her work in Hard Truths was unforgivably absent from the Best Lead Actress nominees at the 97^th Academy Awards, and AMPAS already has a bad habit of not inviting nonwhite women back. Speaking of which…

1) Alfre Woodard — Because her performance in Clemency might honestly be my favorite performance delivered by a woman in the 2010s, and she is someone I deeply admire as both a performer and human being. No actress’s potential return to the Oscars after a decades-long absence would bring me as much joy as hers would.

Who did you rank in Nathaniel’s poll? Who do you want to see become the next Amy Madigan? Let us know in the comments.

* Meanwhile, her Brown Bunny co-star/director has become a sad joke in the years since.