Oscar Nominees: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

My predictions: 3/5, picking Chastain and Russo over Dern and Streep
My ballot: Come back in February!
The nominees: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood), Laura Dern (Wild), Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game), Emma Stone (Birdman), and Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)

I don’t know why I bet against Meryl Streep – she just earned her nineteenth nomination, and for a film that performed pretty poorly, earned additional bids only for art direction and costume design. This category wasn’t confident with its fifth choices at the Globes and SAG and therefore decided to throw a contender back into the ring who seemed like she had been passed over a while ago, Laura Dern. She was good but I wish that the film had shown up in other more deserving places like Best Original Screenplay or even Best Picture. I’m sad that Jessica Chastain isn’t here even though I wasn’t in love with her performance, but because that makes another awesome movie that’s so Oscar-friendly that ends up being entirely shut out. I’m ecstatic about Stone, not that there was really any risk of her not being here, and Arquette and Knightley are fine too. Knightley and Stone’s films lead with nine nominations each.

My current bet to win: Why wouldn’t it be Arquette?