Best Actress

Naomi Watts
The Ring

Best Actress proved to be the most competitive category for The Calvins this year. Long considered a difficult category due to the infrequency of well written parts, 2002 saw a striking increase in the number of noteworthy roles. Driving this point home were the sixteen ballots cast by BOP staff. The name at the top of the ballot matched up only once as a total of 15 different performances were judged worthy of being considered the best of the year.

Naomi Watts was a bridesmaid last year as she finished fourth for her work in Mulholland Drive. This year, it's her wedding (way to go, Heath Ledger!) as her work in The Ring was lauded by BOP as the best of 2002. Ms. Watts managed to make what would have generally been considered to be scream queen work feel fresh and unique in the surprise DreamWorks blockbuster. She was the anchor of the unfolding mystery, and the key to the film's success.

In a year of fractured voting, her presence on the top portion of eight different ballots was the key to victory. Oddly, Watts was not one of the 15 actresses who received a first place vote, but she did finish in second place on four different ballots. With so much diversity in the polling, she made a surprising surge as a compromise candidate which is good enough for the title of BOP's favorite actress of 2002.

Finishing second was Julianne Moore. This recognition is for her work in Far From Heaven rather than The Hours. Our panelists felt that she was more poignant as a scandalous soon-to-be divorcee carrying on with a (horror of horrors!) *whispers* black man. Her success in engaging audiences with the believability of her frustrations in a misogynistic society where women are expected to think only of children and bake sales carried the Sirk throw-back piece over the edge from ordinary to extraordinary. Her work was so strong that she was but a photo finish away from winning this year's award.

Renée Zellweger might have finished in third place this year, but the BOP staff still clearly holds her close to our hearts. After winning in 2001 for her endearing representation of novel heroine Bridget Jones, she continued her hot streak with a scintillating role in Chicago. While she just missed becoming our first repeat winner in the category, she still managed to be the only actress to finish number one on multiple ballots. We also wonder as a group whether this means we should expect a hearty burlesque number in the Bridget Jones sequel.

While Julianne Moore got the attention for Far From Heaven, it was her co-star Nicole Kidman whose work we preferred in The Hours. The most famous Cruise ex in Hollywood (sorry, Mimi) finished in fourth place this year after holding down second (for The Others) and fourth (for Moulin Rouge!) in 2001. We may safely assume she'll be featured in a Women of BOP calendar along with Watts, Zellwegger and Peter Jackson. Moore's portrayal of tortured wordsmith Virginia Woolf blew us away with its heartfelt poignance and symbiotic depiction of the creative process. It would have been quite fitting for this effort to have won Best Actress with Cage winning Best Actor since the two roles are so similar in scope.

Maggie Gyllenhaal torched the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 with her rawly naked performance in Secretary. BOP was similarly impressed as we lauded the role as the fifth best in the category. Actresses will say that it's difficult enough being naked in front of complete strangers while a camera rolls. Ms. Gyllenhaal apparently didn't find this to be enough of a challenge so she threw in a little S&M degradation and self-injury to make her performance that much more shocking. As Naomi Watts did in Mulholland Drive in 2001, we see Secretary as an eye-opening announcement of Gyllenhaal's talent and natural acting ability.

The rest of the top ten is every bit as eclectic as the first five selections. We run the gamut from Jodie Foster's trapped mother in Panic Room to Maribel Verdú's sexually charged but bittersweet effort in Y Tu Mama Tambien. We were impressed by Franka Potente's ability to make the generic part in The Bourne Identity feel much more soulful and true and were blown away by complete unknown Everlyn Sampi's acting in the amazing Rabbit-Proof Fence. Finally, we even gave a tip of the cap to Jennifer Aniston for showing that behind the pretty face lurks a gifted thespian who can do pretty well for herself when she's not being typecast. (David Mumpower/BOP)

Top Ten
Position	Actress	Film	Total Points
1	Naomi Watts	The Ring	59
2	Julianne Moore	Far from Heaven	53
3	Renée Zellweger	Chicago	51
4	Nicole Kidman	The Hours	48
5	Maggie Gyllenhaal	Secretary	43
6	Jodie Foster	Panic Room	42
7	Maribel Verdú	Y Tu Mama Tambien	38
8	Franka Pontente	The Bourne Identity	37
9	Evelyn Sampi	Rabbit-Proof Fence	31
10	Jennifer Aniston	The Good Girl	27