Ranking The Academy Award For Best Actress Winners' Performances From The Past Decade

10. Renee Zellweger - Judy(2019)

In 2004, Renee Zellweger won her first Academy Award for her role in Cold Mountain. It was widely seen as deserved and capped the ongoing career of a fine actress.

Come forward by 16 years and Zellweger has been away for quite a while, not appearing in too many films since 2010. Not Day-Lewis levels of limited projects but not too far away. She began acting again in 2016 and has made five films in that time.

So, in Judy, she plays Judy Garland, the iconic actress who ended up an addict in her teens after making The Wizard of Oz. The film itself is nothing more or less than a well made biographical drama, in which Zellweger is great. That's it.

Which is all very well and good. The problem is that nobody cared about any of it. Renee Zellweger was great, the film wasn't bad. Yet even when she was nominated for a litany of awards for her performance, nobody made a fuss.

The strange thing is that nobody can work out why Zellweger was awarded the Oscar in the first place. She already had one, so this was no career Oscar and Zellweger was faced up against as good performances in better films.

Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story, Charlize Theron in Bombshell and Saoirse Ronan (who is in line for a career win at 26) in Little Women were all arguably more deserving of the win.

She won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award.

Verdict: Neither deserved nor undeserved. Met with total ambivalence.