Emma Stone should win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Bugonia.

The Best Actor or Best Actress should go to someone who convincingly plays a difficult role.   Here are the nominations.

Jessie Buckley in Hamnet: 

After losing their son Hamnet to plague, Agnes and William Shakespeare grapple with grief in 16th-century England. A healer, Agnes must find strength to care for her surviving children while processing her devastating loss.

Buckley portrays a wife who has to bear up under the grief of losing a son.  She’s Shakespeare’s wife, and it’s olde timey, but that’s a relatable experience so shouldn’t be difficult to pull off.

Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

While trying to manage her own life and career, a woman on the verge of a breakdown must cope with her daughter’s illness, an absent husband, a missing person, and an unusual relationship with her therapist.

Byrne portrays a wife who has to bear up under the pressure of a sick daughter.  She has to cope with life, and has a therapist.  An easy situation to imagine, and shouldn’t be difficult to pull off.

Kate Hudson in Song Sung Blue

Lightning and Thunder, a Milwaukee husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute act, experience soaring success and devastating heartbreak in their musical journey together.

Hudson portrays a partner in a musical duo who experience ups and downs in their performing career.  Hudson is a popular actress who has been successful for 30 years, and is aging out of the hot actress roles.  Playing someone experiencing the ups and downs of entertainment shouldn’t be a stretch.

Renate Reinsve in Sentimental Value

An intimate exploration of family, memories, and the reconciliatory power of art.

If Reinsve can play this role in a way that keeps the movie from being boring, then she should get some kind of award, but’s it’s a Norwegian film, so it goes in the international category.

Emma Stone in Bugonia

Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

At one point, Stone has to convince her kidnappers that she is an alien, while we know that she is making it all up to escape.  For the movie to work, the audience has to be convinced that the kidnapper is convinced that his crazy conspiracy theory is true.  That’s difficult, and she pulls it off.

I liked Bugonia.  It’s an entertaining movie with great acting all around.  Emma Stone should win.