Today, Pick of the Flicks takes a closer look at this year’s nominees in the category for Best Supporting Actress.

Will win: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Should win: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Also nominated: Amy Adams (Vice), Marina de Tavira (Roma), Emma Stone (The Favourite), Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)

As far as calling favourites goes, this category is about as clear-cut as it gets. This year’s nominees have graced our screens in films about class, politicians and queens – but, really, this is all about a King, and there’s a statuette with her name on it.

Regina King plays Sharon Rivers in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, a mother tasked with balancing the needs and well-being of her family in a society keen to see it fail. King is a fabulous actress and handles this role with poise and dignity. She does perhaps deserve more screen time than she was ultimately given in the film, but we can rest assured that the Oscar will be going to a good home.

Regina King is nominated for her excellent work in If Beale Street Could Talk, and is the clear favourite to win. 

Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone have both been nominated for The Favourite, in which they play rivals vying for Queen Anne’s affections. Weisz is good, but Stone is better. Abigail is a far-cry from all her previous roles, and yet she excels. Her accent is spot on, she spars with her co-stars perfectly, and in a film which veers (at times chaotically) between drama and dark comedy she gets every single note right. In a different year the Oscar would belong to one of these two actresses.

Rounding off the nominees in this category are Marina de Tavira and Amy Adams. De Tavira is excellent in Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, playing a woman whose family is on the brink of falling apart, but it’s not a role that was ever going to win her major awards. Similarly, even the most cursory of glances at Adams’ filmography makes demonstrably clear that she is a superb actress, and her turn as Lynne Cheney in Vice reinforces this. She will win an Oscar one day, that much is certain, but this is not her year.

Girl power: Stone and Weisz both shine in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite.