And the award goes to...

Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream

2001
Who Won: Julia Roberts (“Erin Brockovich”)Who Should’ve Won: Ellen Burstyn (“Requiem for a Dream”)Who Else Was Nominated: Joan Allen (“The Contender”), Juliette Binoche (“Chocolat”), Laura Linney (“You Can Count On Me”)

Julia Roberts dishes up some plucky charm in Steven Soderbergh’s whistleblower docudrama “Erin Brockovich” — the film that got Hollywood to take the seasoned romcom movie star seriously. But no brassy courtroom verbiage compares to Ellen Burstyn’s indomitable performance as starry-eyed spinster housewife Sarah Goldfarb. Yes, there’s that famous “red dress” monologue where she spills her broken guts to her drug addict son (watch it after the jump), but let’s not forget all the manic pill-popping, amphetamine-addled delusion that showcases her fearlessness as an actress — while at the same time dragging us down to hell.

-IndieWire