The biggest contender in the Best Actress category at this year's Oscar ceremony is Demi Moore for her performance in A Love. This could be the actress’s first Academy Award, but she has already won several prestigious awards for her body-horror role, including a Golden Globe and the American Critics’ Award, which she received yesterday in California. In her acceptance speech, Moore mentioned how the genre is often unfairly neglected at similar ceremonies.
"This has far exceeded all my expectations. I just want to say that the recognition itself—one that speaks not just to me but also to what the film is trying to convey—is like an elixir. This is the cure for the problem the film raises," Moore said on stage. "I’m so grateful, not only for my own performance, but also for the attention brought to this film and genre. Horror films are generally looked down upon, and the depth they can carry is often not recognized."
This year marks the 97th edition of the Oscar ceremony, and as a Slashfilm compilation reveals, over nearly 100 years, only six actors have received an Oscar for performances in horror films—or films on the genre’s edge.
The first was Frederic March, who played the title role(s) in the 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, sharing the Best Actor Oscar at the 5th Academy Awards with Wallace Beery, who starred in The Champ. After that, more than three and a half decades passed before another horror-related Oscar win, but in 1969, Ruth Gordon took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Rosemary’s Baby. Another two decades went by, and in 1991, Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar for her chilling performance in Misery.
The early 1990s are considered the golden age of horror at the Oscars, as the following year, both Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster won Oscars for their roles in The Silence of the Lambs. Since then, the only actor to win an Oscar for a horror or thriller performance was Natalie Portman, who won in 2012 for her role in Black Swan.
Demi Moore now faces Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Mikey Madison (Anora), and Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) for the Oscar on March 2. A Love is also nominated in four other categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Makeup/Hair.
