Annette Bening and the Elusive Oscar | Why She's Never Won 

Running with Scissors was an underrated movie that I believe Benning literally carried on her back.

I hope everyone watches Being Julia. A tour de force in comedy and brilliant acting, a completely unmissable performance.

Oddly, the one l loved was “Being Julia”-it made me realize that the woman doesn’t just have talent- she has class.

Annette Benning is a pronunciation master class. Most articulate actress of her generation.

She has such a beautiful kind warm smile and I love how she often winked at the camera when her nominations were announced. Loved her in American Beauty, should've won. Hilary Swank was great in Boy's Don't Cry but no where NEAR as good as Bening. This might sound harsh, but Hilary Swank does not deserve to be a 2 time oscar winner, she reminds me of Luis Rainer who won back to back Oscars and then fell off. Someone like Annette Bening, as CONSISTENTLY talented and well respected, deserves to have AT LEAST one oscar by now. Big foul by the Oscar voters.

She would have won for supporting actress in 99. No doubt.

Benning is one of the best actresses of her generation. Would be great to see her nominated again and win an overdue Oscar. Fingers crossed. I will say that Swank was the deserving one for both her wins, but that doesn't take anything away from the amazing Benning.

I would have voted for her in all four occasions. I also think she should have been nominated for both 20th century women and Film stars don't die in Liverpool. A great actress.

Annette Bening is an amazing actress and dumb founded how she has not won and Oscar. For me American Beauty, Open Range and especially Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.

I got excited for Nyad, because it would be amazing if she gets the nomination and if she gets a win! It would be long overdue. Honestly, I wish the Academy could do ties in the acting category, because I think 1999 could have easily been a tie year.

I am so proud to say I had the honor and privilege of working with Annette on NYAD, and I have never in my life experienced a more generous, loving, genuine sole in my life. Both she and Jodie were absolutely amazing to work with. I can only hope that The Academy FINALLY realizes what an exceptional talent Annette is, and acknowledges her for the brilliant and breathtaking actor and human that she is. She is so deserving of the Oscar. She worked tirelessly on this film to portray Diana in the most accurate ways possible. Being around Annette and Jodie both is like living inside a Master Class!!❤❤❤❤

Nyad is going to be amazing, she will be nominated. I really hope she wins, she's always wonderful.

Thank you for your brilliant explanation. She should have won for the kids are allright

Film stars don’t die in Liverpool was such a nice film. Had to watch it twice in a row just to be able to take it in.

Last year you made an Elusive Oscar video on Jamie Lee Curtis and she went on to win one so I’m calling it early- Benning wins her overdue Oscar for Nyad this March.

Conviction was another great performance by Hilary Swank, but a devastating performance by Sam Rockwell. If both were shutout, like they were, Juliette Lewis should have received a supporting nom. The movie overall was so so in pacing, and other technical things. 20th Century Women was such an amazing film that should have garnered Annette another Oscar nom and first one for Greta Gerwig for acting in a supporting role. There hasn't been a Mike Mills film I've disliked. I loved The Kids are All Right. That would have been a great win, but like you mentioned, timing seems to always get her in the end. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool should have gotten Annette another Oscar for her sublimely heartbreaking performance. Here's hoping she gets a nom next year and possibly potential win.

Great video. I hope someone like you could one day break down the greatest Best Actress showdown, which was in 1972. Liza Minelli (Winner) Diana Ross Liv Ulman Cicely Tyson Maggie Smith

I’ve loved her since the Grifters! She is phenomenal in everything she does!!❤

She deserved to win for American Beauty. Hands down the best performance of the year. In the best movie of the year. And Angelica and Annete should have won for The Grifters.

Loved this! Annette Bening is one of our most impressive actors. My favorite performances: American Beauty and Twentieth Century Women.

Thank you so much. The long wait ends. 😊

Nyad is Bening's biggest shot at Oscar gold but it's gonna be a stacked category - we might be seeing a repeat of 2016. My predictions so far don't have her in yet, plus there are a ton of possible winners from breakout roles (Huller, Lee, Taylor, Fantasia) and previous Oscar winners (Portman, Lange, Stone, Winslet). Her best chances of winning are if Color Purple gets moved to next year and Nyad is in this year or the opposite (Nyad moves and Color Purple stays), and if her overdue narrative is sold well by Netflix, which might be a problem if the strikes are still going on and she isn't there to promote it.

I was waiting patiently for this video 😍 was definitely worth the wait, bravo.

After watching many of these elusive Oscar videos I've come to the conclusion that NOT winning an Oscar is a vote of confidence in an actor's ability to win one in the future. It seems a lot of Oscars are given to actors who the academy feels might never have another chance. Unfortunately, timing being so crucial, it means many of our best actors never get the award.

As someone who hates category fraud, I almost never say this. But Annette could absolutely have gone supporting in American Beauty. She has less than 30 minutes of screentime. Sad to think that she could have won in that category that year :-(

She should’ve received a nomination for 20th century women. Unbelievable she didn’t. And she should’ve won for American Beauty. I hope she gets it for Nyad

Love this! She’s so amazing. Would love to see a Diane Lane and the elusive Oscar episode as well.

Her work in Nyad is stunning, it's shame she would lose again or might not even get nominated

Great and impressive video 👍. Really enjoyed this series and I hope she wins an Oscar in the near future.

If Nyad is structured well, this could be the one for Bening.

Incredible and fascinating video, Brian! Genuinely, one of my favorite actresses and American Beauty would have been an incredible all time winner had she won and would have aged just as well as Hilary's Boys Don't Cry as a Best Actress Winner. And she was amazing in The Kids Are All Right, Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool, 20th Century Women, and The American President. I'll be very excited for Nyad and see how far she'll go. As always, this was a great Elusive Oscar video with great rewatchabilty potential.

What if you did a video on Marvel actors who deserve an Oscar! You could highlight their standout performances

Bravo on an excellent ‘Elusive Oscar’ video, especially for all the colorful clips from interviews and speeches 👏🏼 What a deserving performer, whose loss for American Beauty (despite Swank’s excellence that year) still chagrins me

Hope she wins this year!

So damn good in “the Kid’s Are All Right” .

A great video! Thanks Brian!

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. She was heartbreaking & absolutely brilliant work.

Might be too early, but i would love a Scarlett Johansson elusive Oscar (maybe more for the only 2 noms than for never winning). Asteroid City wasnt that well received, but her performance was a standout. So maybe she has a shot in getting nominated again!?

Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis proved this year that's it's not too late to win an Oscar

I think Annette has a bigger chance of getting an Oscar nomination, or even a win for Nyad. You have not mentioned this but currently, Hollywood is on strike with both WGA and SAG-AFTRA at the picket lines, and Annette is the Chair of the Entertainment Community Fund. It is one of the active organizations working right now to ensure that entertainment workers are looked after for their welfare while the strike is ongoing. I don’t know how things will go while awards season is coming, and how and when will the WGA and SAG-AFTRA be able to get a deal with AMPTP. But I think that there will be good emphasis on the contributions of actors who were on the picket lines or raise funds. Annette would be applauded for her work for helping her fellow performers.

bravo for a good article!

Would love to see Annette benning play Susan Tyrrell in a biopic about her.

If they don’t campaign I fear the same one will get nominated all the time. There are so many different media outlets now they have to stand out in some way. I also think the Oscar has over time become a bigger deal. Looking back how often actors were not there to pick up their award is almost unthinkable now. I don’t think it was considered as important for a long time. I think it was considered an honor but not everything. I don’t know just when it became a necessity but certainly by the 2010’s campaigning for was part of it.

I would love to see videos for Toni Collette, Ewan Mcgreggor, Emily Blunt, Naomi Watts, Johnny Depp, Rachel Mcadams, Willem Defoe, Julie Waltets could name many more😅

20th Century Women so captures the times in California. I lived it. Annette Bening is such a great actress. BTW, she graduated from San Francisco State.

Some actors make it look soooo easy and Bening is definitely one of them. I’ve loved her in most of her projects. Actors did campaign for Oscars in 1990 and before (not as undignified and thirsty as it nowadays). Diane Ladd campaigned like hell that year. So I guess she was new to the game, but there was no stopping Whoopi that year, plus Ghost was a huge hit. I found her AB performance a little cutesy and unreal at times (Spacey has some really cringey moments, the film hasn’t aged well), so I wasn’t surprised when Swank beat her. I always thought Swank just blew her out of the water in terms of performance. Being Julia was great. I really do believe this is her BEST film work. But no denying Swank yet again that year. Loved her subtle, quiet work in TKAA. Portman was overrated in BS, but definitely deserved an Oscar for Closer. After so many nominations in all the major fields it would be funny is she brought home a Tony or Emmy first. But her new film might make the fifth Oscar nod the charm. Here’s hoping.

A real talent,always disappears into every role. I think she may win the Oscar this year for Nyad if it's any good,she co stars with Jodie Foster. I'd have nominated her for Bugsy,20th Century Women,Running with Scissors,American Beauty,The Grifters,Being Julia and my own win for her comes in the form of the Kids Are All Right.

Love this channel!

Great video!!

It's a shame to see her have such bad luck with such amazing performances.

Hey there, I love your channel. It’s so interesting all the history. I was wondering, would an elusive Oscar video for Christopher Loyd be up your alley? I think he’s such an underrated character actor, and that also brings me to my second question: are character actors often looked over?

she is an exquisite actor. unfailingly captivating onscreen. definitely preferred her turn in twentieth century women to emma stone in la la land...and i absolutely love emma stone in that movie even despite not even loving la la land the most...bening is just, that good

I definitely think Bening’s performance is the thing that’s aged best about American Beauty. Still, it feels more supporting to me, and Swank just killed it too much. In 2004, I don't mind Swank’s win, but I preferred Imelda and Kate that year. Million Dollar Baby in general didn't do it for me nearly as much as it did for many others. And I thought Swank's character and performance was "physical" but also kinda one-note and basic Oscar bait. In 2010, I probably would have given the win to Lawrence. I don’t think she’s yet to best her work in Winter’s Bone. But Portman was a worthy victor. Only in 1991 with The Grifters would I have been completely here for a Bening win. And even then, I can’t really hate on Whoopi’s win or say Bening definitely should have won over Bracco. It’s a slight shame that it seems there’s less push to have Bening win an Oscar than, say, Amy Adams. It’s apparent that as soon as the door opens for Adams she’ll probably win. Bening is a huge question mark at this time since the industry isn’t enamored with throwing nominations at her any longer. Still, I hope the right role, movie and time comes for Bening. And she certainly should have a couple more nods than she has. (Though I probably wouldn’t have even nominated her for Being Julia and would have probably replaced her and Swank with Julie Deply for Before Sunset and Uma Thurman for Kill Bill Vol 2).

Amazing video!!! She is so overdue❤️ If I could pick any performer for you to do, I would 100% choose Joan Cusack!

Just watched Nyad and I think she was great in it! I don't think she'll win anything but she does deserve to at least be nominated imo.

Looking at her roles here just confirms to me she like Meryl Streep, Vivien Leigh and Jessica Chastain. It’s the role not the personality . It’s not that they lack personality far from it and I find all charming but they get into the role. I love them for it. Hopefully she has a better chance this time.

Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, Garbo!!!! Cold comfort I know but it's far from over for Bening.

She should have won her THE GRIFTERS. She was the best in that category.

Both of those Swank wins, imo, were well-deserved but the rest of her career has been kind of a bummer. Annette Bening, meanwhile, has had a marvelous career. That she wasn't nominated for Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool and 20th Century Women is curious. She's probably going to be overlooked for Nyad as well but it's still one of the best of the year. I love Annette Bening. I love Hilary Swank, but outside of the The Homesman, Insomnia, and Conviction, I don't think her talents have been explored to their full potential. Personal fave Bening performance: The Kids are Alright. Fun video! I enjoy your content.

I would like to suggest two videos: 1) taking a leaf out of Bening's nomination for American Beauty that year, one video about the race for Best Supporting Actress at the 2000 Oscars where all the five actresses (Angelina Jolie, Catherine Keener, Chloe Sevigny, Samantha Morton and Toni Colette) were nominated for the first time (and only Jolie and Morton would be nominated again), all except 40-year-old Keener were in their 20s, IMHO all except Morton had at least a fighting chance to win (though Jolie was the clear frontrunner) and for all five, their movie career went up at least a fair notch after that nomination. 2) Toni Colette and the Elusive Oscar. I was baffled to realize in the Be Kind Rewind video about Colette that The Sixth Sense is still her only Oscar nod to this day. For some reason, I thought she had also been nominated at least one time more for Little Miss Sunshine or something else.

What happens when Glenn Close, Amy Adams, and Annette Bening are nominated in the same category????? I’m afraid to find out

filmstars dont die... annette bening brilliant - should have won

I still find it interesting how she lost to Hillary Swank twice. Thanks for the video Rob, I hope you’re doing well. Take care!

This is excellent. Though I disagree that on 2005 she would've won if she was up against Reesse, that year it was Felicity Huffman's to lose. It still bugs me that Reesse won over her.

I rewatched The Great Outdoors and even in that movie she's great.

No doubt she needs an Oscar!

She was supposed to play Catwoman in Batman Returns but got pregnant with Warren Beatty's child. I'm very happy she was! Wouldn't be the same without Michelle... but AB's Oscar time will arrive.

I think the 2000 Oscar ceremony was very interesting, mostly for swanks win. To me it's one of the few moments that the Oscar went to the best performance that year

Annette Benning is stunningly beautiful in The Grifters.

Hope Annette wins the Oscar for nyad!!

NYAD, I hope so.

Diane. Freaking. Ladd. (Great video!)

After hearing about Nyad, Hillary Swank called her agent and said: get me a lead role, pronto! 😂😂😂

Saoirse, pls!!!!!

I saw Glenn Close's career timeline--It basically confirmed ONE of your favorite actress Glenn Close's lack of an Oscar win--very good for youu! BTW, my dad was named Glenn--blah, blah...blah..tytyty for your videos...

I loved Being Julia - but these awards are so tough

Should have won for American beauty.

PLEASE can you help me push a bio movie about Edith Head with Sally Dawkins playing the lead - I've been pushing for this for YEARS!

It's now just a few days after the 96th Academy Awards (Oscars) (broadcast in March of 2024) and I'm still sad that Annette Bening did not win the Oscar again. Ugh... This year, Annette lost to Emma Stone from Emma Stone's performance in Poor Things. Emma did a great job and all but I believe Annette did as well and Annette's character was a bit more challenging to play than Emma's character in Poor Things. Besides, Emma has already won an Oscar, so there's that too. I really hope Annette, Glenn Close and the other ladies mentioned in this video can win an Oscar for lead or supporting acress asap!!! Fingers crossed for Annette's long-awaited Oscar win! It's been time for a long time now Academy!! ❤️🙏🤞🏆

She is nominated these year SAG best actress for nyad

Brian please make a video of Carrie Mulligan elusive oscar please

2023 isn't a hugely strong year for Lead Actress. That's why I think Margo gets in for Barbie. If Anne delivers a tour de force performance this could finally be her year.

Brian, are you going to do one on Naomi Watts or did I miss it?

I feel like generally speaking, the academy likes to reward young actresses over seasoned ones. So the older they get, the harder it gets, and the more their Oscar slips away. What does an older actress need her character/role to be, in order to seriously be considered and eventually a winner?

You have to do one for Madonna.

I always said that Hilary Swank is Annette Bening's "bete noir".

I would find a Ben Affleck and the Elusive Oscar video interesting because the man has two Oscars but never even a nomination for acting or directing. He could have gotten acting nods for Hollywoodland, The Way Back, Argo, Gone Girl (and I know it wouldn't ever happen but my favorite performance of his is actually Dogma), and for director - which I know doesn't fit your series - we know Argo at least was a ridiculous snub.

They took a long long time to give Geraldine Page an Oscar. That was 1985, that meant Whoopi Goldberg couldn’t win for The Color Purple, which meant they wanted to make up for made that by giving Whoopi supporting actress for her okay performance in Ghost. ThAt meant no Oscar for Bening in the Grifters which deserved hands down that year.

I’m still so bitter about American beauty - the performance is so layered. Swank was great and it’s really apples and oranges - but what bening did with that role is what acting is all about.

If she went for Supporting in '99 she would have an Oscar the same with Michele Williams this year! I thought it was Variety but it was THR Actress Round Table where Bening and Swank were together where Bening was shady and cold toward Swank! That was my impression anyway.

Don't forget Naomi Watts! 😝. Great video!

Come on, "Nyad"!

It is CRIMINAL that Annette has never won but as you said.... (at least for 2 of the noms) its all in the timing.

If Bening won for American Beauty, then that film would have won the Top Five, like Silence of the Lambs and Cuckoo’s Nest.

Nyad is also directed by people who won Oscars and made great documentaries so they probably are not going to do some awful oscar bait and seems like they will carefully craft this story and they know what they are doing. They film may be really acclaimed, Jodie Foster only helps the situation and actually is a perfect casting for Diana Nyads life partner (they sound the same). ALSO FROM IMBD Trivia>>>> An earlier script by Robert Specland was featured on the 2015 Black List of the best unproduced scripts of the year. Also the only performance that is super baity and has a political narrative as well is Fantasia Barrino, that may be the super baity role Bening could lose to but if The Color Purple gets moved to the next year (there are rumors) Bening may win this. It checks a lot of boxes -Baity role, overdue, feminism, agesim, lgbt, true story, quality film, Netflix (which means every voter can and probably is easy going to watch it (few times). Greta Lee is very subtle and im afraid that the buzz on that film will slow down as it already has, Robbie would be happy to be nominated, Sandra Hüller, Teyana Taylor would also belong in that group and im not sure the biopic performances from Carey Mulligan(who is usually very boring when does Oscar bait and goes nowhere) and Cailee Spaeny will be strong enough for the win. Also if Lily Gladstone is campaigned in lead im not sure she takes this as the role is very subtle. So again if this all goes well this may be that moment for Bening (and maybe even Foster).

omg we need BETTE MIDLER and the elusive oscar!!!

If she is going up against Emma Stone for "Poor Things", I honestly don't think she has a chance. Emma Stone seems like she is the one to beat unless the Academy decides to award the first Native American Indian in Lilly Gladstone for "Killers of the Flower Moon". Since Emma Stone is already an Oscar winner and after seeing Michelle Yeoh take it this year against Cate Blanchett's finest performance to date in "Tár", I actually think Lilly Gladstone is next years big frontrunner.

Alternate timeline: Bening wins in ‘91, hosts the Oscars four times, and is impaneled on The View. Goldberg loses in ‘91, marries Warren Beatty, and gets an Elusive Oscar video after chasing the statue for another thirty years.

For Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, Annette Bening was originally cast as Catwoman based on the strength of her performance in The Grifters, but Bening had to drop out of the film due to pregnancy.

She will sell this house today!