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Predict Hollywood Races
Oscars Nominations 2025
Predictions
Best Picture
- Anora7/1
- The Brutalist15/2
- Conclave8/1
Best Actress
- Mikey Madison 19/5
- Angelina Jolie 9/2
- Karla Sofia Gascon 9/2
Best Actor
- Adrien Brody 37/10
- Ralph Fiennes 19/5
- Colman Domingo 9/2
Best Supporting Actress
- Zoe Saldana 7/2
- Ariana Grande 5/1
- Felicity Jones 6/1
Best Supporting Actor
- Kieran Culkin 37/10
- Guy Pearce 9/2
- Denzel Washington 5/1
Best Adapted Screenplay
- Conclave69/20
- Sing Sing4/1
- Nickel Boys11/2
Best Original Screenplay
- Anora69/20
- The Brutalist4/1
- A Real Pain5/1
Best Director
- Brady Corbet 19/5
- Sean Baker 4/1
- Edward Berger 13/2
Best Animated Feature
- The Wild Robot16/5
- Inside Out 24/1
- Memoir of a Snail9/2
- Misty Holland, Robert Pius, Chris Beachum
- Film
Peter Brooker/REX/Shutterstock
Melissa McCarthy started her career doing improvisational comedy at The Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, which is also where she met her husband Ben Falcone. She then went on to a successful run on the TV series “Gilmore Girls” for seven seasons. She followed that up with other TV shows and small movie roles but it would be a return to The Groundlings crew that would launch her into super-stardom. Her former castmates Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote a female gross-out comedy called “Bridesmaids” and cast McCarthy along with other Groundlings veterans Maya Rudolph and Wendi McLendon-Covey. The film would become a surprise hit in the genre which was usually dominated by men and even earn McCarthy an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress.
McCarthy found herself in a unique position in show business as just as “Bridesmaids” made her a movie star she had also just begun a new TV sitcom called “Mike and Molly” which would bring her a 2011 Emmy for Best Comedy Actress. McCarthy won an additional Emmy in 2017 as Best Comedy Guest Actress for “Saturday Night Live.” She earned a second Oscar bid in Best Actress for her dramatic turn in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (2018).
Let’s take a tour of McCarthy’s film work with her greatest 12 performances, ranked from worst to best, including “Spy,” “The Little Mermaid” and “St. Vincent.”
12. TAMMY (2014)
Director: Ben Falcone. Writer: Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone. Starring Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Allison Janney
McCarthy and her husband wrote this film and kind of got lambasted from the critics for their efforts. McCarthy and supporting actress Susan Sarandon even received Razzie nominations for the film. Despite all that if you watch it with low expectations you will get a few good laughs as McCarthy plays a woman with nothing quite going right for her who takes a road trip with her foul-mouthed grandmother. Again keep the expectations low and you may find some enjoyment.
11. THE NINES (2007)
Director and writer: John August. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Elle Fanning.
This inventive science fiction film featured McCarthy before she really established herself as a major box office star. Ryan Reynolds plays multiple roles in the film one of which is a depressed television writer. McCarthy has some strong moments as his PR representative who tries to keep his spirits up.
10. IDENTITY THIEF (2013)
Director: Seth Gordon. Writer: Craig Mazin. Starring Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet.
McCarthy uses her likability factor to actual make audiences feel some sympathy for her character. She plays a highly immoral woman who steals Jason Bateman’s identity and causes various chaos in his life by using his credit cards and even getting him arrested. In other hands it might have been hard to like this character but somehow McCarthy makes it work.
9. THIS IS 40 (2012)
Director and writer: Judd Apatow. Starring Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Siegel.
You could argue that Judd Apatow showed the beginnings of the child birth experience in “Knocked Up” and the results of it in “This is 40.” Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Mrs. Apatow in real life) star as a couple dealing with suburbia and children. McCarthy has a small role as a combative mother who Rudd has a run in with.
8. GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)
Director: Paul Feig. Writers: Paul Feig and Katie Dippold. Starring Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones.
This female reboot of the “Ghostbusters” film from 1984 generated controversy and headlines long before it even hit the screen. Some people resented that the popular 1984 film was being rewritten for a female perspective. While co-star Kate McKinnon got the best reviews of the four stars McCarthy more than holds her own in this film that somehow managed to survive all the press that could have bogged it down.
7. GO (1999)
Director: Doug Liman. Writer: John August. Starring Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr.
McCarthy only has one scene in this inventive film from director Doug Liman but she made it work. The film tells interlocking stories of various twenty somethings coping with life in Los Angeles. McCarthy has one moment as the roommate of a man who is having an affair with both members of couple consisting of two gay soap opera actors. When they both knock on her door and McCarthy realizes they are on to her roommate’s affairs with both men McCarthy gets to deliver a memorably awkward comedic performance.
6. THE HEAT (2013)
Director: Paul Feig. Writer: Katie Dippold. Starring Sandra Bullock, Demian Bichir, Marlon Wayans.
McCarthy teamed with Sandra Bullock for this female buddy cop movie that gave her one of her best vehicles. She has genuine chemistry with Bullock. McCarthy plays the more laid back of the two whereas Bullock is the more tightly wound and superior acting of the cops. The two gifted comedic actresses put their own spin on this film that owes a little bit to Oscar and Felix of “The Odd Couple” and a little to “Cagney and Lacey.”
5. THE LITTLE MERMAID (2023)
Director: Rob Marshall. Starring Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem, Art Malik, Noma Dumezweni. Voices: Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay.
McCarthy took on a daunting task when she agreed to play Ursula the Sea Witch in Rob Marshall’s live-action musical remake of the 1989 animated classic. The film did offer the comic actress the opportunity to sing and do comedy, but she knew she would be compared to the legendary voice work of Pat Carroll in the original. Wisely, McCarthy chose to forge her own path with the character, nailing the comedy but also showing us the sense of jealousy of the power wielded by her brother King Triton, a character choice by McCarthy that adds a level of surprising complexity to the tentacled villain.
4. SPY (2015)
Director and writer: Paul Feig. Starring Jason Stratham, Jude Law, Allison Janney.
This film has a whopping 94 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is one of McCarthy’s most successful box office hits as well. She plays a mild-mannered CIA analyst who spends most of her time at a desk job. Circumstances suddenly thrust her into the field and into the action that she usually only sees from behind the safe walls of her office. Vogue said McCarthy had “finally been given a vehicle with the speed and gloss worthy of her comic talents.”
3. ST. VINCENT (2014)
Director and writer: Theodore Melfi. Starring Bill Murray, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd.
McCarthy had her biggest dramatic success in this film that paired her with Bill Murray, one of her heroes. McCarthy plays a put-upon divorcee whose son befriends a cranky neighbor played by Murray. Rolling Stone said had high praise for her work and said that in “playing her role straight and true, downplays the comedy to show surprising nuance and feeling.”
2. BRIDESMAIDS (2011)
Director: Paul Feig. Writer: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne.
It is rare that a comedic performance gets an Oscar nomination and even more when an outright comedic performance featuring a great deal of bathroom humor and raunch gets one but McCarthy pulled off that rare fete in 2011 when she earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for this film. The movie was put together by a bunch of women who met as members of the Los Angeles comedy troupe “The Groundlings.” Kristen Wiig also earned an Oscar nomination for the screenplay she wrote for this box office and critical success.
1. CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (2018)
Director: Marielle Heller. Writers: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty. Starring Richard E. Grant, Jane Curtin, Anna Deveare Smith.
MCarthy earned her second career Oscar nomination – and her first in Best Actress – for shedding her broad comedic persona for Marielle Heller’s darkly humorous character study. Based on a true story, “Can You Ever Forgive Me” casts McCarthy as ornery biographer Lee Israel, who links up with a charming grifter (Richard E. Grant in a scene-stealing, Oscar nominated supporting turn) to forge letters from famous dead people for quick cash. McCarthy brings a surprising amount of sympathy to the prickly Isreal in a role that also brought her bids at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, SAG and Critics Choice Awards.
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