Concluding my personal list of Oscar nominations with a look at the Best Supporting Actress race.

Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Talk about a tough assignment for a debut film role. For her role as Borat’s feral daughter Tutar, Bakalova had to repeatedly improvise with no room for error, while playing off of Sacha Baron Cohen, one of the greatest improvisational talents in the world. She pulled that off with hilarious results, and found room to build a character we actually care about by the end of the film. All that and she had to share a hotel room with Rudy Giuliani at peak creepiness. Reward this woman!

Olivia Colman – The Father

Colman was new to me when I saw her amazing, Oscar-winning turn in The Favourite. Since then, I have come to appreciate the wide range of her talent, and to delight at every one of her personal appearances. In The Father, she plays a loving but overwhelmed daughter trying to do what’s best for her ill father without sacrificing her own happiness. She has the added challenge of playing the role through the prism of the father’s dementia.

Dominique Fishback – Judas and the Black Messiah

Fishback, in what could have been a standard “wife” role, gives Deborah Johnson vital agency, as she struggles with the idea of entering motherhood against the backdrop of injustice and righteous revolution that surrounds her. In the film’s devastating climax, director Shaka King lets the pivotal event play out entirely through her reaction, in one of the most haunting moments I saw onscreen last year.

Margo Martindale – Blow the Man Down

This little-seen Amazon release, about a northeastern fishing village and the women who run things while the men are out to sea, is a great addition to a long tradition of rural crime dramas. Martindale, as the madam of a local whorehouse and the town’s intimidating godmother, is alternately nurturing and chilling. Whether in comic or dramatic roles, she is one of the great character actresses.

Youn Yuh-jung – Minari

Youn has had a hugely successful film and television career in her native South Korea for decades, but it took her hilarious, heartbreaking turn in Minari to put her on the international stage. As the grandmother visiting from Korea, she avoids cliche and runs away with the movie, especially when paired with fellow scene-stealer Alan Kim.

And the winner is… Bakalova. Comic performances are so seldom nominated, let alone given the win. Let’s change that!