Oscar #3 for ‘Nyad’ scene-stealer Jodie Foster?
“Nyad” floated its way onto screens this week at the BFI London Film Festival, with the sports biopic treating film fans to a pair of dynamite performances from Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. The Netflix movie, due out on Oct. 20, stars Bening as the titular Diana Nyad while Foster features as her best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll. The film charts Nyad’s attempts at swimming from Cuba to Florida while in her sixties. This charming feel-good film keeps you gripped but the real highlights are Bening and Foster, who have an easy rapport suggesting they could be friends off-screen, too.
Foster, in particular, gets a meaty supporting role. Her Bonnie is tough but loving, intelligent but understanding, and has an underlying strength and charm that carries the movie. This is particularly important because, in the film’s final third, Bening’s Nyad spends the majority of the time swimming, not talking. So it is up to Foster to carry the movie in this segment — and she sure does.
Peter Debruge (Variety) observed: “Foster proves a buoyant presence — like the human equivalent of those adorable pink floaties kids wear in the pool. The movie would sink without her. And so would Diana Nyad. She wouldn’t dream of doing the Cuba-to-Florida swim without Bonnie, and so, she uses her sneaky psychology to talk her pal into serving as coach…. Foster’s radiant smile leaves the biggest impression. There’s a scene where she sits and encourages Diana, reciting some pep talk about their dreams, and all you can think is what a megawatt presence Foster is on-screen, and how she really ought to make more movies.”
Benjamin Lee (The Guardian) noted: “It’s Foster who steals the film with a fine reminder of her easy charisma. We’ve barely seen the actor in the last decade, and before she makes her ‘True Detective’ debut (a seemingly perfect match of actor and material), Nyad allows her to be a real person for once, a test that not many movie stars can ace quite this well. The pair have the chemistry of old friends and when they’re on screen together and on dry land, ‘Nyad’ is swimmingly good.”
Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair) commented: “Bening has terrific support from Jodie Foster, an actor of exceeding appeal who does not work near often enough these days… Foster practically boats off with the movie. That’s because we spend so much engaging time with her, as Bonnie frets over and encourages Nyad, who is lost and distant in her mad charge toward greatness. Bonnie is our proxy, and Foster’s winsome performance sways us to her side.”
The critical support could be an indicator that Foster could be in contention for Best Supporting Actress this year, the category that feels the most open and unsure out of the four acting categories. At the moment, our predicted nominees in this category are Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”), Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”), Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”), Taraji P. Henson (“The Color Purple”), and Julianne Moore (“May December”).
Foster is in sixth place and right on the heels of not just Moore but all five of our current predicted nominees. The category feels so open that any of these women, who all turn in fine performances, could be nominated, win, or drop out entirely. That could be good news for Foster, who potentially has the meatiest of roles out of these six contenders.
Randolph delivers a charming performance in “The Holdovers” but the role is somewhat slight compared to her competitors. Blunt, meanwhile, has plenty of those typical “Oscar moments” in her role as Kitty Oppenheimer, but voters may want to reward the film via director Christopher Nolan, lead actor Cillian Murphy, or supporting actor Robert Downey Jr. Brooks and Henson are in roles that earned Oscar bids for Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey, respectively, in 1986 but “The Color Purple” feels like an unknown quantity at this moment in time. It hasn’t played at any festivals and little has been heard of the film. Perhaps “The Color Purple” will disappoint and won’t be the big awards player we think it is. If those two drop out, Foster will be in with a huge shout.
Moore, meanwhile, delivers a delicious performance in “May December” and, for my money, should be further up our Odds charts. But so, too, should Foster. She is essentially a co-lead in her film — this type of meaty supporting performance always does well in both the male and female supporting categories. Some examples of these types of performances being nominated include Jessie Buckley in “The Lost Daughter” (2022), Maria Bakalova in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” (2021), Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz in “The Favourite” (2019), Viola Davis in “Fences” (who won in 2017), Rooney Mara in “Carol” (2016), and Alicia Vikander in “The Danish Girl” (who won in 2016). Davis, Mara, and Vikander, in particular, were all famous examples of lead performances that were slotted into supporting for awards campaign purposes. Foster could follow suit, although it helps that the film is called “Nyad.” Foster will automatically be thought of as supporting Bening’s Nyad, even if she does become the focal point in the final third (at least dialogue-wise).
We also know that the academy loves Foster. She’s a two-time Best Actress winner — for “The Accused” in 1989 and “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1992. She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1977 for “Taxi Driver” and picked up another Best Actress bid in 1995 for “Nell.” She’s very much admired by her peers.
What also helps is the fact that this would be an Oscars comeback for Foster. It’s been 28 years since she was last nominated — that is a strong narrative. And the fact that she doesn’t actually make that many films helps her cause. It makes her performance here a rarity — which will always be valued by the academy. She did feature in “The Mauritanian” in 2021 and came close to a nomination then but, again, that helps her. That was Foster’s pre-emptive comeback. This is the official, main meal of a comeback with an even meatier role. Foster is set to become a major player in this category, according to this writer, at least, particularly as it feels so open after Lily Gladstone switched from supporting to lead for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Foster, like Moore, is a legend. And legends, especially in open races, are always an easy person for voters to nominate. Expect Foster to rise up the ranks sooner rather than later.
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions