Heading into the 2023 Oscars, Best Actress nominee Cate Blanchett (“TAR”) is looking to follow Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep, and Frances McDormand as the fifth woman to win at least three Academy Awards for acting. Her previous victories came for her supporting and lead turns in “The Aviator” (2005) and “Blue Jasmine” (2014), which, in terms of screen time, are respectively one-fifth and one-half the size of her “TAR” performance. If she succeeds on this outing, hers will be the longest performance to win an Oscar in over 80 years.
With seven previous acting bids to her name, Blanchett is now one of the seven most-recognized actresses in Oscars history. The five starring roles for which she has achieved academy recognition have a screen time average of one hour, 15 minutes, and 10 seconds (or 59.96% of the respective films). Her newest nomination boosted that mean by nearly 15 minutes. Her three nominated featured performances average out to 34 minutes and 49 seconds (or 30.48%).
Check out our gallery and screen time analysis of Blanchett’s eight Oscar-nominated performances, and be sure to tune in to the 95th Academy Awards, airing Sunday, March 12 on ABC.
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2023 – ‘TAR’ (Best Actress)
Image Credit: Focus Features 2 hours, 15 minutes, 15 seconds (85.49% of the film)
Blanchett’s work as egotistical conductor Lydia Tar not only constitutes the longest Oscar-nominated performance of her career by far, but also stands as the second longest performance ever recognized in the Best Actress category, behind only Vivien Leigh’s in “Gone with the Wind”. It is also one of only nine Oscar-nominated performances to pass the two-hour screen time mark and ranks behind that of Leigh, Denzel Washington in “Malcolm X,” and Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street” as the fourth largest in any category.
Blanchett’s “Tar” screen time naturally surpasses that of every other 2023 Best Actress contender and puts her over 37 minutes above the lineup’s average. On the low end is Michelle Williams, whose 52 minutes and 24 seconds of time in “The Fabelmans” makes her an even greater outlier. The middle nominees, who all fall within a 21-minute range, are Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”; one hour, 33 minutes, and four seconds), Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”; one hour, 35 minutes, and 16 seconds), and Ana de Armas (“Blonde”; one hour, 53 minutes, and 44 seconds).
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2016 – ‘Carol’ (Best Actress)
Image Credit: Lionsgate 1 hour, 4 minutes, 45 seconds (54.71% of the film)
Blanchett’s fourth lead bid came for her portrayal of Carol Aird, a 1950s soon-to-be divorcee who falls in love with an aspiring female photographer. She had the lowest amount of screen time among her fellow nominees and fell 15 minutes and 16% below their average.
She also happened to be outpaced by her on-screen love interest, Rooney Mara, who was nominated in the supporting category despite having over 70 minutes of screen time. She lost the lead award to Brie Larson (“Room”), whose screen time total of one hour, five minutes, and 46 seconds (55.96%) barely surpassed hers.
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2014 – ‘Blue Jasmine’ (Best Actress)
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classics 1 hour, 7 minutes, 31 seconds (68.66% of the film)
Blanchett triumphed on her third Best Actress nomination which she earned for playing the Blanche DuBois-esque Jasmine Francis in this Woody Allen dramedy. In this case, she had the second highest amount of screen time in her lineup and ranked eight minutes and 12% above the average.
Her competitors’ screen times ranged from 49 to 73 minutes and 36 to 80%, with the parameters having been set by Amy Adams (“American Hustle”) and Sandra Bullock (“Gravity”).
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2008 – ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’ (Best Actress)
Image Credit: Universal Pictures 51 minutes, 39 seconds (45.01% of the film)
Blanchett’s second lead nomination made her the first and only actress in academy history to be recognized twice for playing a single character. If her two performances as Queen Elizabeth I were counted as one, her screen time total of one hour, 48 minutes, and 20 seconds would be the 12th highest among all Best Actress nominees.
She had the second least screen time among her fellow nominees and ranked nearly two minutes and 13% below the average. She was bested this time by Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), who clocked in at one hour, 21 minutes, and 14 seconds (or 57.88%).
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2008 – ‘I’m Not There’ (Best Supporting Actress)
Image Credit: Lionsgate 27 minutes, 9 seconds (20.05% of the film)
This supporting nomination coupled with her lead one for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” made Blanchett the eighth of nine actresses to ever compete for two Oscars at once. In this artistically bold account of singer Bob Dylan’s life story, she plays male character Jude Quinn, whose perspective is meant to mirror that of the Dylan’s during the counterculture movement of the 1960s. This time, her screen time total was the highest in her group, surpassing the average by over nine minutes and 6%.
She lost to Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”), whose time on screen totaled 18 minutes and 34 seconds (or 15.50% of the film) and thus put her in the middle of the lineup.
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2007 – ‘Notes on a Scandal’ (Best Supporting Actress)
Image Credit: Searchlight Pictures 51 minutes, 34 seconds (56.24% of the film)
Blanchett received her second supporting nomination for playing Sheba Hart, a married art teacher who is faced with the problem of preventing her coworker from exposing her tryst with a teenage student. She also had the highest screen time total in this lineup and landed over 13 minutes and 23% above its average.
She was bested in this case by Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), whose actual screen time total was only four seconds behind Blanchett’s. Her percentage, however, was significantly lower at 39.60%.
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2005 – ‘The Aviator’ (Best Supporting Actress)
Image Credit: Miramax 25 minutes, 45 seconds (15.15% of the film)
Blanchett won her only Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her shortest nominated performance to date, which involved her playing Hepburn in Howard Hughes’s life story. Compared to her competitors, she had the second lowest physical screen time total and the lowest percentage.
Those nominated against her had screen time amounts that ranged from 22 to 39 minutes and 17 to 37%, with Virginia Madsen (“Sideways”) and Natalie Portman (“Closer”) being at the respective low and high ends.
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1999 – ‘Elizabeth’ (Best Actress)
Image Credit: Gramercy Pictures 56 minutes, 41 seconds (45.91% of the film)
At the time of her first Oscar nomination, Blanchett’s initial performance as Elizabeth I fell within the shortest 40% of ones that had ever been recognized in her category. She ranked in the middle of this lineup, with her screen time putting her two minutes and 3% below the average.
She was beaten on this outing by Gwyneth Paltrow (“Shakespeare in Love”), who ranked second in the group by clocking in with a lower time of 50 minutes and 16 seconds (or 40.70% of her film).
