Summary

• Lily Gladstone is the frontrunner to win the Best Actress Oscar in 2024 for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon.
• Annette Bening's nomination for her role in Nyad is her fifth Oscar nomination and she is still seeking her first win.
• Sandra Hüller's nomination for Anatomy of a Fall is rare for the Academy, as there have been few non-English-speaking performances nominated for Best Actress in the last decade.

Competition is heating up for the Best Actress Academy Award at the Oscars 2024, with several great performances vaulting women into the awards race. A year removed from Michelle Yeoh's breakthrough win for Everything Everywhere All At Once, the 2023 movies released once again provided some memorable roles for actresses to dive into. As it pertains to awards season, there are some perennial contenders once again in the mix, while some lesser-known stars are also attempting to break into the race in a meaningful way. That has left a wide-open race for Best Actress in 2024.

Just as the Oscars 2024 Best Actor race is filled with worthy performances to win, the group of nominated actresses is equally impressive. The unexpected surprise of Lily Gladstone campaigning for Best Actress, not Best ing Actress, for Killers of the Flower Moon significantly shook up the race. Meanwhile, Margot Robbie's snub for Barbie opened up a spot for another multi-Oscar-nominee to enter the picture. That has a direct result on Screen Rant's list of the 2024 Oscars' Best Actress nominations and ranking the predicted winner:

Annette Bening was the only Best Actress nominee missing from Screen Rant's final predictions

5 Annette Bening In Nyad

She is still seeking her first win after five nominations

Annette Bening was the beneficiary of Margot Robbie's Barbie snub as the Academy Awards elected to nominate her for her performance in Nyad. The movie tells the true story of Diana Nyad, played by Bening, and her attempts to swim across the Straits of Florida. Nyad's chances of earning Bening an Oscar nomination began following its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival. She started to pick up momentum as awards season continued on, as the Golden Globes and SAG Awards both gave her nominations, strengthening the chance of the Academy Awards following suit.

Nyad now becomes Annette Bening's fifth Oscar-nominated performance. She earned her first nomination in 1991 with The Grifters, but that recognition came in Best ing Actress. Bening has since earned nominations for her leading roles in American Beauty, Being Julia, The Kids Are All Right, and now Nyad. She has never won an Oscar despite these multiple nominations, and it will take a strong campaign for Nyad to change that. Bening gained momentum in awards season at the right time, but its likely too late for her to actually win.

4 Carey Mulligan In Maestro

She was nominated before as recently as 2021

Carey Mulligan has vaulted up predictions for the Best Actress Oscar in 2024 thanks to Maestro. The new movie from Bradley Cooper has been positioned her as a contender for Best Actress as well. She plays Leonard Bernstein's wife Felicia Montealegre in Maestro, which chronicles their decades-spanning love story through all the highs and lows. Instead of Mulligan campaigning in the 2024 Oscars Best ing Actress category, her leading actress Oscar push is directly tied to the movie framing the story so that both Felicia and Leanord Bernstein are the focal points.

The heartbreaking details of Felicia's life and relationship with the legendary composer give Carey Mulligan a great opportunity to showcase her abilities in Maestro. It's hardly a surprise that she has now received her third Oscar nomination overall. She was nominated for Best Actress in 2021 for Promising Young Woman years after her first nomination for An Education. Maestro could be responsible for Mulligan finally winning her first Academy Award, as she now has BAFTA, Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards nominations to back up her case. Her lack of wins, though, makes it more difficult.

3 Sandra Hüller In Anatomy of a Fall

Hüller's nomination is rare for the Academy

Sandra Hüller could make Oscar history in 2024 after her nomination with a win. She is the star of two international Oscar contenders, but Anatomy of a Fall is the one to secure her a Best Actress nomination. She stars as Sandra Voyter, a writer who attempts to prove she is not responsible for her husband's death in this courtroom drama from director Justine Triet. There are many reasons why Anatomy of a Fall's reviews are so glowing, and Hüller is among the most common. She carries the film on her shoulders and delivers an exceptional performance.

This is Sandra Hüller's first-ever Oscar nomination, and it marks a rather rare nomination for the Academy. There have only been four non-English-speaking performances nominated for Best Actress in the last decade, and none of them have won. This makes Sandra Hüller's chances of winning the Best Actress Oscar in 2024 a bit lower unless she manages to be the one to break through. That's more likely as the voting body becomes more diverse and favorable to non-English-speaking movies. Her Golden Globes, BAFTA, and Critics Choice Awards nominations help her case with the Academy voters.

2 Emma Stone In Poor Things

A second Oscar win can put Stone in rare company

The presumed winner of the Best Actress 2024 Oscar at one point was Emma Stone for her work in Poor Things. The fantasy comedy movie from director Yorgos Lanthimos brings out a completely different side of Emma Stone as a performer, one that was heralded by critics ahead of its theatrical release. Her decision to reteam with Lanthimos means an opportunity for them to repeat the Oscars success of their prior collaboration, The Favourite, which received 10 Oscar nominations overall. While Stone was nominated for Best ing Actress, it was her co-star Olivia Colman who won Best Actress in 2019.

With some recent Oscars history on her side, Emma Stone's case to win the Best Actress award in 2024 is strong. She is already an Oscar winner thanks to playing Mia in La La Land. Her win in 2017 came two years after her first Academy Award nomination for Best ing Actress in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Her win at the Golden Globes could help, while winning at BAFTA would have been stronger if Lily Gladstone was among the nominees. Losing at SAG hurts her case unless voters ultimately reward Stone as a familiar presence.

Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone competed in different acting categories at the Golden Globes, and they both won.

1 Lily Gladstone In Killers of the Flower Moon (Winner)

Gladstone will make history with an Oscar win

Lily Gladstone was previously thought to be the frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar in 2024, but she's now right at the top of predictions for winning Best Actress. Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon was a massive hit with the Academy voting body with 10 nominations overall. Gladstone's role as Mollie Burkhart is at the heart of the movie, and she is essential to the emotional core. Her ability to draw viewers in with minimal dialogue at times and command the screen opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro is impressive and worth the Academy's recognition.

A Best Actress Oscar nomination for Lily Gladstone is the first of her career. She became the fourth person from indigenous descent nominated for Best Actress, but the first from Native American descent. No indigenous performer has ever won an acting Oscar, which would make Lily Gladstone's potential victory for her Killers of the Flower Moon performance a historic achievement. The fact that her co-stars have faded in their races or missed nominations entirely could even strengthen her case.

Native American actor Wes Studi was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2019

Lily Gladstone's momentum to winning an Oscar in 2024 started as she racked up wins through various critics groups. She went on to win at the Golden Globes and the National Board of Review. Her loss to Emma Stone at the Critics Choice Awards could hurt a bit, but the SAG Awards win may have helped decide the race. That important win should help her secure the Oscars 2024 win for Best Actress.