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Oscar 2017 Winner Predictions: Actress

To those who’ve been relishing the shade Eric has been throwing at La La Land, I apologize, because I will not be taking Emma Stone to the library today.

Emma Stone
Photo: Lionsgate

Those who’ve been paying especial attention to the bylines attached to these articles may have noticed that I’ve largely predicted the categories in which La La Land isn’t nominated. For the conspiracy theorists among you, let me be clear: My complete and utter ambivalence toward Damien Chazelle’s film necessitated that I hand over the reins of the categories in which it is nominated to Eric Henderson, or we would have risked our rolling Oscar prediction coverage rousing the level of excitement of a Jeb Bush rally. And to those who’ve been relishing the shade Eric has been throwing at La La Land, I apologize, because I will not be taking Emma Stone to the library today.

Stone is a lovely, thoughtful actress, and she comes closer than anyone else in La La Land, or any other facet of the production, to generating a convincing electric charge. She will win the Oscar next Sunday for checking all of the boxes that countless young best picture-headlining ingénues before her have. That her character holds up a mirror to the lonely ritual and sometimes self-absorptive nature of artistic creation is the icing on the cake. After all, the Oscars are nothing if not a celebration of inwardness and narcissism.

While I would love to give serious credence to the belief that Isabelle Huppert poses a serious threat to Stone, without having been nominated for the SAG award, the French acting legend will remain a distant second. And anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to clickbait you onto the Gold Derby site. I do, though, take pleasure in Huppert having won the Golden Globe, because if she hadn’t, then I would have had to spend the entirety of this article contemplating the prospect of Stone losing this award to Natalie Portman’s performance in Pablo Larraín’s A Muppet Leaves the White House.

Will Win: Emma Stone, La La Land

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Could Win: Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Should Win: Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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