Fifty Years of feathermaye Favorites

Okay, so here’s the deal.

I’ve been debating with myself how to handle the weeks leading up to the 81st Annual Academy Awards in relationship to feathermaye’s Friday five. I mean, I could devote the next three weeks to purely Oscar-worthy stuff, but then I’d be completely overlooking the ideal palette provided to me with the naturally-occurring spectacle of next week’s Friday the 13th.

And, even if I chose to forgo all mention of my favorite horror films next week (since horror films rarely get any mention at Oscar ceremonies), how in the world would I convey all that I wanted to convey in regards to my favorite non-horrific Oscar winners?

In the end, I’ve reached a compromise that has kept me writing all night in an effort to cover all of my bases. It’s really been quite exhausting and you should pay no attention to my frazzled hair and mis-buttoned shirt. I promise I will have pulled myself together in time for the red carpet festivities of which I am so fond.

So, this week I present to you five sets of five films, each in a category of my choosing based on the presentations I typically get all jacked up about. I have a special treat in store for the Friday before the Oscars, so this week I’ll give you everything else.

The lists below encompass the better part of 50 years of film-making, and even with all I chose it was a hard call in a lot of cases.


feathermaye's favorite Best Original Screenplay Winners

1960: The Apartment (Billy Wilder & I.A.L Diamond)
1969: Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (William Goldman)
1988: Rain Man (Ronald Bass & Barry Morrow)
1995: The Usual Suspects (Christopher McQuarrie)
2006: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Charlie Kaufman)

feathermaye's favorite Best Supporting Actress Winners

1968: Ruth Gordon (Rosemary's Baby)
1971: Cloris Leachman (The Last Picture Show)
1987: Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck)
1992: Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny)
2003: Renee Zellweger (Cold Mountain)

feathermaye's favorite Best Supporting Actor Winners

1967: George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke)
1974: Robert DeNiro (The Godfather, Part 2)
1983: Jack Nicholson (Terms of Endearment)
1996: Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Jerry Maguire)
2002: Chris Cooper (Adaptation)

feathermaye's favorite Best Actress Winners

1964: Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins)
1975: Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest)
1980: Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner's Daughter)
1990: Kathy Bates (Misery)
2006: Helen Mirren (The Queen)

feathermaye's favorite Best Actor Winners

1962: Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mockingbird)
1972: Marlon Brando (The Godfather)
1981: Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond)
1999: Kevin Spacey (American Beauty)
2002: Adrien Brody (The Pianist)


You can click here for a complete list of this year's nominees for Academy Awards. The ceremony will be broadcast live on February 22, 2009 at 7pm (CST).

This website contains a comprehensive list of all previous Oscar winners.