'93 was Holly Hunter's year.
In the summer, she played a supporting role in the hit film, The
Firm. The John Grisham story, and the Tom Cruise vehicle earned big
box office, and Holly rode the wave as a sassy secretary who helps Cruise
fight the mob. At the end of the year, she appeared in a starring
role of her own, in the controversial, and sexually intriguing, The
Piano. Jane Campion's Oscar nominated film looked at a deaf mute in
the mid-nineteenth century, who finds passion in her piano, as she is
exiled into an arranged marriage in remote New Zealand.
It
was more than just Emma Thompson's year - it was her decade. The
British Actress already took home an Oscar a couple of years earlier for
Howard's End. The film made her a household name, and Thompson used
her fame wisely, soon becoming a producer and writer for many of her own
projects.
In '93, she chose two roles,
including a supporting part in the politically charged Irish film, In the
Name of the Father, playing a lawyer who defends a man when he is
implicated in an IRA bombing. Also, she took on another role from
the production team, Merchant-Ivory, that brought about Howard's
End. She re-teamed with Anthony Hopkins to play the head servant in
an early twentieth century castle, in Remains of the Day.
While both actresses were good in
their roles, critics like Roger Ebert were quick to point out the
senselessness in the double nominations, suggesting that other actresses could have
occupied those supporting actress slots. "We know that Holly
Hunter is going to win for The Piano, you didn't have to be a rocket
scientist to figure that out," he said. "Why not spread the
net a little wider? Show a little more imagination and nominate
someone else who deserves a nomination."
Hunter was the odds on favorite to
win the Oscar and she didn't disappoint. In doing so, she became the
first double nominee to win the Best Actress category, instead of the
Supporting one. It was a further surprise when her 11 year old
co-star, Anna Paquin went home with the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
Emma Thompson, meanwhile, went
home empty handed - but she needn't have worried. Her chance would
come again!
