Top 10 Best Actress Oscar Races: The Ingenue vs. The Veteran

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Emma Stone vs. Isabelle Huppert

Emma Stone vs. Isabelle Huppert
2012: Jennifer Lawrence (‘Silver Linings Playbook’) vs. Emmanuelle Riva (‘Amour’)
2007: Marion Cotillard (‘La Vie en Rose’) vs. Julie Christie (‘Away from Her’)
1999 and 2004: Hilary Swank vs. Annette Bening
2003: Charlize Theron (‘Monster’) vs. Diane Keaton (‘Something's Gotta Give’)
2001: Halle Berry (‘Monster's Ball’) vs. Sissy Spacek (‘In the Bedroom’)
2000: Julia Roberts (‘Erin Brockovich’) vs. Ellen Burstyn (‘Requiem for a Dream’)
1989: Michelle Pfeiffer (‘The Fabulous Baker Boys’) vs. Jessica Tandy (‘Driving Miss Daisy’)
1983: Debra Winger vs. Shirley MacLaine (‘Terms of Endearment’)
1981: Meryl Streep (‘The French Lieutenant's Woman’) vs. Katharine Hepburn (‘On Golden Pond’)
1968: Barbra Streisand (‘Funny Girl’) vs. Katharine Hepburn (‘The Lion in Winter’)

This year’s Best Actress race has once again come down to the young ingenue vs. the older veteran actress. While this if the first time both Emma Stone (“La La Land”) and Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”) have competed in the Best Actress race, their being the frontrunners does follow a pattern in the category where many times in the past the young Hollywood it-girl has taken on a more experienced actress to be named the year’s best. Click through our photo gallery above of the Top 10 Best Actress Oscar races between ingenues and veterans.

-By Robert Pius

Winner: The Ingenue — Jennifer Lawrence

The 22-year-old became the second youngest Best Actress winner (Marlee Matlin remains the youngest) when she beat 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva (who holds the record for the oldest Best Actress nominee ever). While Lawrence won the Golden Globe and SAG Awards, French actress Riva won at BAFTA. Some prognosticators felt had there been more time in the balloting window Riva could have given Lawrence strong competition for the Best Actress Oscar win. 

Winner: The Ingenue — Marion Cotillard

Both actresses won Golden Globes but Julie Christie won SAG and was considered the favorite when the young French ingenue scored a surprise victory and became the first person to win Best Actress for a French language film.

Winner x2: The Ingenue — Hilary Swank

The veteran Bening lost twice in five years to newcomer Hilary Swank. In 1999 Bening lost for “American Beauty” to Swank’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” and in 2004 Bening lost for “Being Julia” to Swank’s “Million Dollar Baby.’

Winner: The Ingenue — Charlize Theron

Theron won the Golden Globe Drama award while Diane Keaton took the Comedy/Musical trophy. When Oscar time came around the younger Theron was awarded Best Actress.

Winner: The Ingenue — Halle Berry

Spacek was considered the early favorite to win Best Actress but Berry won SAG and subsequently the Oscar, making her the first and still the only African-American woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress.

Winner: The Ingenue — Julia Roberts

Roberts won the Oscar but the veteran Burstyn was highly acclaimed and had many supporters for the innovative film by Darren Aronofsky. Burstyn probably would have assured herself a second Oscar (she won in 1974 for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”) had she been submitted in the Best Supporting Actress category. 

Winner: The Veteran — Jessica Tandy 

Pfeiffer won all four major critics’ awards (New York, Los Angeles, National Board of Review, National Society) but lost the Oscar to the veteran Tandy. Pfeiffer remains the only actor to sweep these four critics’ awards but lose the Oscar.

Winner: The Veteran — Shirley MacLaine 

The story of a complicated mother/daughter relationship pitted its two stars against each other at the Oscars. The relationship of the actresses by all accounts was just as stormy as the one depicted in the film. When MacLaine won the award, she insulted her co-star by thanking her for her “turbulent brilliance.”

Winner: The Veteran — Katharine Hepburn

Meryl Streep lost her first Best Actress award to the veteran Hepburn who won her fourth award at age 74.

Winner: TIE!

The only tie ever in the Best Actress race, Streisand won her first award for her first film while Hepburn took home her third trophy. Hepburn had only won her second Oscar the year before in 1967.

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