7. Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
I know this performance has a lot of fans - owing to it not only being nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but winning the gong outright - yet it's one I struggle to get behind because I don't really view it as a performance as such, at least not an acting one. Jennifer Hudson is a very talented singer, no doubt, but wasn't she just doing in Dreamgirls what she's always done - being a talented singer? Even if we accept that, yes, singers should be able to be nominated for vocal performances, was her turn really that extraordinary? Was Hudson really that much better than the year's other nominated performances, which included Adrianna Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi from Babel, Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine, and most impressively, Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal. It's disappointing that the Academy picked such an ordinary performance in a year that had so many more deserving candidates - how great would it have been to see Breslin take the stage?