Best Actress at the Oscars is always a bloodbath, but this year’s category has felt particularly contentious. The final five nominees, announced earlier today, seem curated for maximum discourse, with the surprise nod for Kate Hudson in Song Sung Blue raising eyebrows. Yet, despite the film flying under the radar—dubbed “Song Sung who?” by one colleague—Hudson’s nomination deserves defence.
Hudson plays a real-life Neil Diamond tribute act disabled in a tragic accident, a role that had been circling awards chatter for a while. Her work now sits alongside Jessie Buckley (the inevitable winner for Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Emma Stone (Bugonia). Song Sung Blue is old-school Oscar catnip—inspirational, heartwarming, and a true story about artistic dreamers surviving against the odds. It is crowd-pleasing but undeniably touching, with Hudson delivering a steely, warm, and effervescent performance. When her character experiences a life-altering accident, Hudson takes the film’s upbeat frivolity with her; she is the movie, and her absence on screen is keenly felt.
Hudson is an actor you forget between films, partly because she works infrequently, building a brand outside acting—podcasts, fashion, vodka. She has also been in many dismal films. But revisiting her in Almost Famous reminds you of her brilliance: she channels her mother, Goldie Hawn, bringing a breezy, aspirational normality to her characters. Women like Hudson are often overlooked because their work seems too easy, but Song Sung Blue and this nomination highlight just how good she can be.
This year’s Best Actress race is messy. The big absence is Chase Infiniti, a star-is-born spitfire in One Battle After Another, but breaking through as a young woman in her first film is tough. Amanda Seyfried should have earned more acclaim for The Testament of Ann Lee, and Jennifer Lawrence’s devastating work in Die My Love has been ignored. They join last year’s Marianne Jean-Baptiste in the “what were they thinking?” snub category. Yet, seeing so many incredible women miss out is good news: it means complex female roles are out there, in movies revolving around grief, turmoil, and psychological messiness.
