Another funny year for me. I've seen 3/5 of these performances but I can only really remember one.

The nominees for this year were:
Halle Berry in Monster's Ball as "Leticia Musgrove"
Judi Dench in Iris as "Iris Murdoch"
Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! as "Satine"
Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom as "Ruth Fowler"
Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary as "Bridget Jones"

My Ranking:
1. Kidman - I didn't like this film - I thought it was incomprehensibly busy and tonally all over the place - and I thought the same of the performance. Kidman bursts onto the scene with WOW charisma in her first big number, but then she seems confused by the film's constant switches in mood and at the end her romantic scenes with Ewan and her [SPOILERS]death scene[/SPOILERS] were completely unbelievable for me. She was miles better in "The Others" and she should have been nominated for that.

-.Berry (haven't seen it)
-.Dench (saw it ages ago and remember not being convinced by the performance)
-.Spacek (saw it ages ago and remember not liking the performance)
-.Zellweger (haven't seen it)

My Personal Ballot:
1. Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr. as "Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn"
2. Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher as "Erika Kohut"
3. Nicole Kidman in The Others as "Grace Stewart"
4. Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde! as "Elle Woods"
5. Laura Harring in [i]Mulholland Dr.[/b] as "Rita"

01. Spacek
02. Berry
03. Dench
04. Kidman
05. Zellweger


My ballot:

01. Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive
02. Thora Birch, Ghost World
03. Kerry Washington, Our Song
04. Brooke Smith, Series 7: The Contenders
05. Charlotte Rampling, Under the Sand

1) Kidman
2) Berry
3) Spacek

4) Zellweger

5) Dench

Personally I would have replaced Zellweger and Dench with Naomi Watts- "Mulholland Dr." and Charlotte Rampling- "Under the Sand".

Like many of the other posters on here, I feel the winner should've been the not-nominated Naomi Watts for "Mulholland Dr.".

#1-Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge
-I loved the movie when it came out but now I don't have the passion for it that I once had, and the same could almost be said for Nicole Kidman's work in this, but I still say she deserved to win for this. She has a nice voice and she showed a lot of range. However, had she had won for "To Die For" a few years before (had she had been nominated for that), I might've been more prone to give Spacek a 2nd Oscar.

#2-Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom
-She is one of those actresses that I feel needs a 2nd Oscar because they usually deliver consistently great work (although she hasn't really done a lot lately). Her work in "In the Bedroom" was suspected to get her an Oscar until Halle Berry won the SAG and all of the talk of how African-Americans were ignored by the Academy got her to the win (I will discuss this when I talk about Halle). I think this was one of Spacek's better performances and I hope she has a comeback soon that will get her another Oscar.

#3. Halle Berry, Monster's Ball
-She proved herself to be a good actress with this role, but unfortunately, she hasn't exactly picked the best roles since then. I don't think that this was a bad choice as a lot of people do but I still think that Nicole or Sissy deserved the Gold more.

#4. Renee Zellweger, Bridget Jones' Diary
-I actually really liked this performance a lot and found it to be really funny. One scene that stood out was when she was at the book function talking about the author whom she said "is one of the top 30 novelists of our time" and she is butchering the introduction. I thought it was really funny. It was a very strong performance that never had a chance of winning and was, unfortunately, up against three stronger performances.

#5. Judi Dench, Iris
-This was not a bad performance either but I didn't think this was one of her best. I still say this was Naomi Watts' spot. I need to see "Iris" again though since it has been nearly 7 years now.

This was Sissy Spacek's year!! And i agree about the African American talk and Berry's SAG win...helped her get that Oscar. My rankings are:

Spacek
Dench
Kidman
Berry
Zellweger

1. Sissy Spacek
2. Halle Berry
3. Nicole Kidman
4. Judi Dench
5. Renee Zellweger

1. Nicole Kidman
2. Renée Zellweger
3. Sissy Spacek
4. Judi Dench
5. Halle Berry

A very good line-up!

Sissy Spacek should have won.

1) Berry
2) Spacek
_____________________________________________

3) Zellweger
4) Kidman
5) Dench

Aside from Berry and Spacek, this was a weak lineup.

I agree that this was a weak line-up. All those nominated are highly accomplished actresses, but these five performances were among the weakest of each actress' filmography, in my opinion.

1. Sissy Spacek
2. Judi Dench
3. Renee Zellweger

...Top three worked well...otherwise terrible!!!

4. Nicole Kidman (really only for the seduction scene where she first meets up with Ewan.)
5. Halle Berry...nothing special at all here.

1. Berry
2. Zellweger
3. Kidman

Have not seen the other two, but if Naomi Watts was nominated she would've taken it.

Halle Berry, hands down, deserved to win Best Actress in 2001.

Rankings:

1)Halle Berry
2)Sissy Spacek
3)Renee Zellweger
4)Nicole Kidman
5)Judi Dench

I'm sure how deserved the win was, but i'm sure it made Halle feel gooooooooood!
*Berry-
*Berry- Half the performance is dreadful; but the second half which is quiet and subtle is pretty good. (Extra points for her multiple orgasm faces)
*Kidman-
*Kidman- Yeah I don't know. The performance is a bit shallow (or maybe that's the character?), but Kidman is impressive in some scenes. However not enough for a win.

*Spacek- Chain smoking, grieving, and tense situations call for Oscar attention. Decent, but nothing particularly memorable.
*Dench- *Spacek-*Kidman-
*Dench- She's like Meryl Streep when it comes to Oscar. Keep nominating her, but don't vote for her, because in the future she have that golden moment yet again. I wouldn't be shocked if she never won again.

*Zellweger- *Zellweger-She's great in film's like chicago and down with love[B]but a nom for a British accent and looking like a pig?

does anyone realize that all these nominees of 2001 are Oscar winning actresses?

berry won the race
kidman win next year
spacek won before (1981)
dench in 1999
zellweger two years later (2004)

and of all the nominees only halle berry shows her boobs that makes her has more edge to voters over her fellow contenders and i've seen all the performances and halle really proves she's the true winner.

1. Nicole Kidman
2. Sissy Spacek
3. Renee Zellweger
4. Halle Berry
5. Judi Dench

I would have replaced Berry and Dench with Naomi Watts and Tilda Swinton (The Deep End)

1.- Renee Zellweger (I love comedy performances) plus i usually hate her, but here i like a lot, so it is a plus.
2.- Nicole Kidman
3.- Halle Berry
4.- Sissy Spacek (I dont like that movie at all)
5.- Judi Dench

My rankings for another great year:

1. Nicole Kidman
2. Sissy Spacek
3. Renee Zellweger
4. Halle Berry
5. Judi Dench

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jbboy,

Rankings:

1. Halle Berry, "Monster's Ball"
2. Nicole Kidman, "Moulin Rouge!"
3. Sissy Spacek, "In the Bedroom"
4. Judi Dench, "Iris"
5. Renée Zellweger, "Bridget Jones's Diary"

I would have given the Oscar to Sissy.