When Lily Gladstone was nominated for an Oscar as lead actress for “The Flower Moon Killers,” she unleashed a wave of hope inside and outside of Hollywood that she would become the first Native American to win the award, in the number one 96th Academy Awards.
And although she received a loud wave of applause when her name was announced during the nominees presentation, her journey ended in disappointment when Emma Stone of “Poor Things” claimed the lead actress honor.
“It's not about me, it's about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts,” Stone said through tears as she claimed her second Oscar for lead actress, having previously won for “La La.” Land” in 2017. There was surprise in the room and even on stage: Jennifer Lawrence, one of the presenters, put her hands to her mouth in shock when Michelle Yeoh read Stone's name.
The honor came on the heels of her BAFTA win for Yorgos Lanthimos' mischievous turn in the period drama, in which Stone plays a woman who finds liberation and self-realization after being brought back to life by a surgeon. eccentric. As producer of the film, Stone was also nominated for best picture, also capping a triumphant year off-screen: through Fruit Tree, Stone's production company with her husband Dave McCary, was also behind the acclaimed television series ” The Curse”, the recent independent film. release “Problemista” and Sundance favorites “I Saw the TV Glow” and “A Real Pain.”
The other nominees in the category were Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) and Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”).
“Killers of the Flower Moon” fell short in other notable categories, including Robert De Niro for supporting actor and Martin Scorsese for director. (Gladstone's co-star Leonardo DiCaprio was not nominated for his lead role.) In fact, as awards season entered its final stages, it became clear that Gladstone represented the film's best chance at winning an Oscar.
She received near-universal praise for her portrayal of the real-life figure Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who is attacked along with other members of her family and the general native population of Osage County, Oklahoma, during the 1920s as part of a murderous operation. plot to steal the rights to their oil-rich lands. And since the film earned a nine-minute standing ovation last May when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Gladstone had won precursor awards from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild. Still, some Oscar watchers feared that her relatively limited screen time and the narrative's focus on DiCaprio's character could hurt her chances against a more traditional leading role like Stone's.
Those concerns were realized Sunday when Stone's name was announced, ending Gladstone's historic campaign. Gladstone, of Siksikaitsitapii/Nimiipuu descent, was born in Montana and grew up on the Blackfeet reservation. She joins artists like Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider”), who is Maori, and Yalitza Aparicio (“Roma”), who is Mixtec and Triqui from Mexico, among the indigenous women who have been nominated for lead actress but he didn't win.
