Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 2009

Leading up to the 2011 Oscars, we’ll showcase the past twenty years of Oscar Acceptance Speeches by Best Actress winners and Best Supporting Actress winners. (Note: In most cases, you’ll have to click through to YouTube in order to watch the speeches, as embedding has been disabled at the request of copyright owners.)
Best Actress Nominees: 2009

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married (read our two-part Ripley’s Pick here and here)
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Supporting Actress Nominees: 2009

Amy Adams, Doubt
Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (read our Ripley’s Rebuke here)
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

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Kate Winslet wins Best Actress for her performance in The Reader.

Penélope Cruz wins Best Supporting Actress for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

 
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See nominees and winners in previous years: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

2 thoughts on “Oscar Acceptance Speeches, 2009”

  1. Unlike 2008, the right women did not win in 2009. Winslet and Cruz are fantastic, but these were not their best roles. Both, in fact, seem a lot like make-up awards–when Winslet should have won for _Revolutionary Road_ and Cruz for _Volver_.

    I wrote in my review of _Vicky Cristina Barcelona_ how much I hated that shrieking cartoon of a character Cruz played, and all I can think about regarding her win in 2009 is that she was rewarded for playing a ridiculous cliche, rather than a strong and interesting woman in _Volver_. Sure, Cruz is an Oscar-caliber actress, but this certainly wasn’t the role to highlight.

    Winslet could’ve won several times before _The Reader_…I’m glad she has an Oscar, but, again, this wasn’t her best role. Hathaway, Leo, and Streep were phenomenal in their nominated roles.

  2. I never saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona (mainly because of your scathing review of it–and I TRUST YOU) … but I did see The Reader, and I thought Winslet was amazing in that role. It was a much quieter performance than her role in Revolutionary Road (with all the yelling and the crying and the running away to the woods), and it was the *subtlety* of her performance in The Reader that I found so incredible. Streep and Winslet are at the top of my list of actors who can convey volumes with a facial expression … and Winslet in The Reader pretty much devastated me.

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