Steve Pond
Steve Pond’s inside look at the artistry and insanity of the awards race, drawn from more than three decades of obsessively chronicling the Oscars and the entertainment industry.
A version of this story about Kathryn Hunter first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
One of the most delightful surprise of awards season so far came in the New York Film Critics Circle’s supporting-actress category. In a hugely competitive field that included Kirsten Dunst from “The Power of the Dog,” Aunjanue Ellis from “King Richard,” Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno from “West Side Story” and Caitriona Balfe and Judi Dench from “Belfast,” the critics went for a little-known, 64-year-old stage actress named Kathryn Hunter, whose biggest film role has come in Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”