Amy Adams Deserves An Oscar

Amy Adams becoming an Oscar winner is long overdue, and while Nightbitch was at one time thought of as a potential contender for her, there’s little chance that this is the movie that makes her an Academy Award winner. Adams first emerged as an awards contender in 2006 thanks to her supporting role in Junebug, which led to her earning four Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations in only eight years. She then received her first Best Actress Oscar nomination in 2014 for American Hustle before going back to supporting five years later with Vice.

Amy Adams’ Oscar nominations have left many, myself included, waiting for the day that she’ll actually win. That’s been more challenging in recent years when she’s snubbed for beautiful performances like Arrival. The desire to win an Oscar brought Adams to take bold swings, like Hillbilly Elegy or The Woman in the Window. That continues with her leading role in Nightbitch. The movie – directed by Marielle Heller and given an awards-friendly release date from Searchlight Pictures – could seem like another potential Oscars play for her. But, Nightbitch won’t make Amy Adams an Oscar winner.

Nightbitch Is The Wrong Genre To Help Amy Adams Win An Oscar

There’s A Strong Bias Against Movies Like Nightbitch At The Oscars

While Amy Adams’ latest movie does not quite have the reception of most Oscar contenders – just look at how Nightbitch‘s Rotten Tomatoes score has dropped – critical consensus does not always line up with Oscar voters. Sure, if the movie was better received overall, it would bolster her nomination potential, but Adams is also the type of star who can get into the race based on name recognition and her body of work. The bigger issue for the actress breaking into the 2025 Oscars Best Actress race is Nightbitch‘s genre as a black comedy/horror movie.

The Oscars have proved time and time again that there is some level of disinterest in giving performances from comedies and horror movies awards recognition. It is no secret that comedies and horror films have delivered some exceptional performances over the years. And despite that these genres of films create different challenges for actors, any performance from horror or comedy is rarely nominated by the Academy Awards in any of the four acting categories. That’s bad news for Amy Adams if Nightbitch‘s genre automatically makes the path to an Oscar nomination, much less a win, more difficult.

Nightbitch Doesn’t Have The Necessary Support To Get Amy Adams In The Best Actress Race

Nightbitch Is A Lower Priority This Awards Season

It’s fair to say that while Amy Adams delivers a strong performance in Nightbitch, it arguably is still not among the best of her career and one that definitively deserves an Oscar nomination. That does not fully discount the possibility of her getting into the race, but it would take the perfect campaign. The likelihood of that happening seems low based on how Searchlight is likely to prioritize its various Oscar contenders. Searchlight’s FYC site has Nightbitch featured among A Real Pain, A Complete Unknown, Kinds of Kindness, The Greatest Hits, and Suncoast.

At the moment, A Real Pain and A Complete Unknown are movies that Searchlight is likely to favor pushing this awards season over Nightbitch due to their broader appeal and awards reach. The good thing for Amy Adams, though, is that neither of those movies has a performance that the studio is campaigning for a Best Actress nomination. That leaves Adams in direct contention with Emma Stone’s performance from Kinds of Kindness as Searchlight’s best chance to get one of their movies into the lead actress category.

There’s a case to be made that Adams deserves the bigger push between her and Stone. She’s the one who is a six-time Oscar nominee but hasn’t won it all yet. The narrative around her Oscar history could be seen as one that would help her case. Oscar voters who vote with their hearts could be convinced to get Adams into the race as one of the five nominees. However, if Searchlight wants to get into Best Actress, Emma Stone is the safer bet.

Emma Stone is a four-time nominee across both actress categories and is two for two in Best Actress after her somewhat surprising win for Poor Things at the last show. Kinds of Kindness might also be more on the outskirts of awards contention overall, but it’s still a better movie for Searchlight to push than Nightbitch. While Searchlight is still doing FYC screenings for Nightbitch throughout December, it’s lacking the groundswell of support needed to really bring Adams’ name into the Best Actress race.

What Amy Adams’ Nightbitch Performance Means For The 2025 Oscars Best Actress Race

The Category Is Already Very Competitive Without Her

It would be great if Amy Adams could finally win an Oscar at some point, but that’s difficult to imagine with Nightbitch due to the state of the Best Actress race right now. There is no shortage of strong contenders already without adding her into the mix. Add in the fact that she’s among the latest performances to consider for a nomination and she has a limited runway to get the necessary support from Oscar voters to beat out other actresses who are more firmly entrenched in the race.

Right now, Mikey Madison (Anora), Angelina Jolie (Maria), and Karla Sofia Gascón (Emilia Pérez) are among the performers in the strongest position to earn Best Actress nominations. Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Demi Moore (The Substance), and Saoirse Ronan (The Outrun) are other notable names also in contention. Adams would have to overtake one of these actresses to secure an Oscar nomination. Frankly, if Oscar voters are looking to reward a daring lead actress performance from a horror/comedy this year, it should be Demi Moore – not Amy Adams – who breaks through with an Oscar nomination.

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Nightbitch

Director

Marielle Heller

Release Date

December 6, 2024

Writers

Marielle Heller , Rachel Yoder

Cast

Amy Adams , Scoot McNairy , Zoe Chao , Mary Holland , Kerry O’Malley

Runtime

98 Minutes