Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet are both proven academy favorites with multiple nominations to their names. Both are now in another plausible Oscar contender, “Ammonite,” in which Winslet plays Mary Anning, a paleontologist who forms a brief but intense relationship with Ronan’s Charlotte Murchison. If both were to earn a nomination for “Ammonite,” it would be Ronan’s fifth and Winslet’s eighth, continuing their runs as some of the most nominated actresses of the 21st century. While Winslet already won her Oscar for 2008’s “The Reader,” Ronan has yet to take home the little gold man, but she might just be on the same path to victory as her co-star in the end.
Winslet earned Oscar nominations for “Sense and Sensibility” (1995), “Titanic” (1997), “Iris” (2001), “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) and “Little Children” (2006) before finally winning for “The Reader” (she was later nominated for 2015’s “Steve Jobs”). During the run-up to Winslet’s victory, there was a building overdue narrative typically reserved for older actors and an intangible feeling that “her time” was coming soon.
The same could be said for Ronan, who not only earned four nominations for films that were up for Best Picture but did so by the age of 25. She is the second youngest person to accrue four acting nominations, behind Jennifer Lawrence, who was a slightly younger 25. Ronan has collected her bids in a similarly short timespan, for “Atonement” (2007), “Brooklyn” (2015), “Lady Bird” (2017) and “Little Women” (2019). Now 26, she would break Winslet’s record as the youngest to get five nominations if she makes the cut for “Ammonite”; Winslet was 31 when she contended for “Little Children.”
According to the latest Gold Derby odds, Winslet and Ronan are just on the outside of breaking into Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, respectively. Oscar prognosticators know how much the Academy loves to fall back on their old favorites, and with stars like Winslet and Ronan, it’s easy to imagine voting members checking out a film like “Ammonite” over films with more obscure stars. Assuming Ronan is nominated, she could be a plausible threat to win if the category remains as open as it is now, but winner discussion is still months away. Even if “Ammonite” is not the film that gets Ronan the gold, she could follow the Winslet template to a T and finally win on her sixth nomination.
PREDICT the 2021 Oscar nominations through March 15
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