\n\tThe decision puts one of the season\u2019s marquee names near the top of the supporting actress conversation, settling a question awards watchers have debated since the film opened: not whether Hathaway would contend but where. It also positions Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus, as the film\u2019s lone above-the-title lead in the acting races and pairs Hathaway with her co-star Samantha Morton, whose Circe has drawn some of the film\u2019s strongest notices.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith Hathaway in supporting, Universal will have a shot at the most common double-acting nomination in Academy history: two supporting actress nominees from the same film. It has happened more often than any other two-nominee combination in the acting categories. The downside is obvious \u2014 Hathaway and Morton (a two-time Oscar nominee for \u201cIn America\u201d and \u201cSweet and Lowdown\u201d) would be competing against each other \u2014 but a film of this size gives the studio plenty of reason to try.<\/p>\n
\n\tHathaway won the supporting actress Oscar in 2013 for her performance as Fantine in the movie musical \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables.\u201d The Academy has a history of rewarding established favorites in major prestige films, and \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d certainly fits that mold. Nolan\u2019s first film since \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d which won best picture and best director, has crossed $1.6 billion worldwide, making it a major player in Universal\u2019s best picture campaign.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe supporting actress placement also puts Hathaway in a category that, at least this early in the season, looks less crowded than the lead actress race. That field has been gaining momentum around Oscar winner Julianne Moore (\u201cStill Alice\u201d), whose film \u201cThe Debut\u201d made a splash at Telluride and continued its run at TIFF.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe season has some intriguing history if it breaks Hathaway\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
\n\tIf both Moore and Hathaway were to win \u2014 giving each her second Academy Award on the same night \u2014 they would be the first pair of women to do so since 1995. That year, Jessica Lange won lead actress for \u201cBlue Sky,\u201d her second Oscar after \u201cTootsie,\u201d while Dianne Wiest won supporting actress for \u201cBullets Over Broadway,\u201d her second after \u201cHannah and Her Sisters.\u201d No ceremony in the three decades since has seen two women each win a second acting Oscar.<\/p>\n
\n\tAssuming victory, Hathaway would also become only the third woman to win supporting actress twice, joining Wiest and Shelley Winters. Wiest won for \u201cHannah and Her Sisters\u201d (1986) and \u201cBullets Over Broadway\u201d (1994), while Winters won for \u201cThe Diary of Anne Frank\u201d (1959) and \u201cA Patch of Blue\u201d (1965). If \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d lands a best picture nomination, Hathaway would be the first woman to win supporting actress twice for films that were both nominated for best picture.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tL to R: Anne Hathaway is Penelope and Tom Holland is Telemachus in \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d written, produced and directed by Christopher Nolan.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMelinda Sue Gordon<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Penelope role also caps a huge year for Hathaway. She opened 2026 as the pop star at the center of A24\u2019s \u201cMother Mary,\u201d which underperformed at the box office but earned her warm notices. She then returned as Andy Sachs opposite Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt in \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2,\u201d which has grossed $691 million worldwide. After \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d came Warner Bros.\u2019 1982-set creature adventure \u201cThe End of Oak Street,\u201d in which Hathaway plays suburban mother Denise Platt. And still ahead is one of her biggest swings of the year as the title role in Michael Showalter\u2019s \u201cVerity,\u201d the Colleen Hoover thriller opposite Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, which opens Oct. 2. Hathaway also serves as a producer.<\/p>\n
\n\tUniversal is positioning \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d for a massive Oscar nomination morning. Beyond the obvious technical blitz, with the epic seeking recognition in every available artisan category \u2014 including original song for the Travis Scott-penned track \u2014 the film is also looking for multiple acting nominations. Damon is the push in lead actor, while Hathaway and Morton are competing in supporting actress. The film could also land one or two supporting actor bids, with veterans John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson in the mix. Pattinson, like Hathaway, is having a particularly busy year, with four films that also include \u201cPrimetime,\u201d \u201cThe Drama\u201d and \u201cDune: Part Three,\u201d the latter two of which also star \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d castmate Zendaya.<\/p>\n
\n\tNotably, only four films in Oscar history have landed double-acting nominations across two categories in the same year: \u201cAll About Eve\u201d (1950), with Anne Baxter and Bette Davis in best actress and Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter in supporting actress; \u201cPeyton Place\u201d (1957), with Arthur Kennedy and Russ Tamblyn in supporting actor and Hope Lange and Diane Varsi in supporting actress; \u201cThe Last Picture Show\u201d (1971), with Jeff Bridges and winner Ben Johnson in supporting actor and Ellen Burstyn and winner Cloris Leachman in supporting actress; and \u201cTerms of Endearment\u201d (1983), with winner Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger in actress and John Lithgow and winner Jack Nicholson in supporting actor.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn an awards race still taking shape, Hathaway gives Universal a recognizable contender with a previous Oscar win, a clear path to building a campaign around one of the year\u2019s biggest films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Support the Queen of Ithaca! Universal Pictures will campaign Anne Hathaway in the supporting actress category for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7245,321,93,61,60,2625,83194],"class_list":["post-631675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-anne-hathaway","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-oscars","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}