After The Room Next Door's big win at the Venice Film Festival, it has been decided that Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton will both be promoted for Best Actress in a leading role.
Pedro Almodóvar most likely has a big hit movie on his hands which will be coming out this holiday season. It's The Room Next Door from Sony Pictures Classics. It already won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and is set to soon play at the New York Film Festival. It has been decided that both of its stars, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, will compete in the same award category for Best Actress. While Moore has already won in this category, Swinton has only won in the Best Supporting Actress category. Who will make the cut come Oscar nomination time? That's the big question mark hanging over Almodóvar's latest masterpiece.
It's hard to believe that Julianne Moore only won one Oscar for Still Alice when considering that she played phenomenal roles in Paul Thomas Anderson's terrific 1990's films, Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Swinton has one Oscar for her work in Michael Clayton. Both actresses will be competing for their second Oscar win at next year's award ceremony. What differentiates these two actresses from other potential nominees is that these are two grand master thespians who are in the later stages of their careers. That makes a win a possibility for one of them because their roles in this new movie are so special and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences may want to honor a more established actress than say someone who's only been around for a little while or who is younger in age. While it's hard to decipher who else but these two will make the final cut for Best Actress, it's easy to say that these are two of the best actresses working today and they are two who have been around the longest of the potential nominees.
Of course, screen veteran who is now in her 90's, June Squibb of Thelma, is this year's dark horse Oscar contender for Best Actress while the much younger Mikey Madison's name is kicking around early "best of the year" lists for her work in the upcoming Anora which will also play at this year's New York Film Festival. These actresses could compromise two of the slots of the Best Actress category this year with Moore and Swinton taking two which could leave the also much younger Saoirse Ronan occupying the other slot for The Outrun.
This is all purely speculative right now as there are a lot of film projects which have yet to be seen from the slate of 2024 releases. However, the sure thing is that Moore and Swinton will both be in the running for Best Actress which could make voting a bit difficult. It's like choosing the better one out of two of the finest wines in circulation. Like fine wine, Swinton and Moore still have a lot of time to thrive but both of their times seem to be coming for another Oscar win. Could one of these stars' next win be for The Room Next Door? At this point, the smartest money around is saying "yes."