Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a 2018 American biographical comedy drama film directed by Marielle Heller and with a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, based on Lee Israel's 2008 memoir of the same name. It stars Melissa McCarthy as Israel and follows her as she tries to revitalize her failing writing career by forging letters from deceased authors and playwrights.[3]

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2018, and was released in the United States on October 19, 2018, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It received acclaim from critics, with both McCarthy's and Richard E. Grant's performances being praised. The film was named by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten of 2018, while Grant won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. At the 76th Golden Globe Awards, McCarthy and Grant received nominations for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

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A Star Is Born is a 2018 American musical romantic drama film produced and directed by Bradley Cooper (in his directorial debut) and written by Eric Roth, Cooper and Will Fetters. A remake of the 1937 film of the same name, it stars Cooper, Lady Gaga, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, and Sam Elliott, and follows a hard-drinking musician (Cooper) who discovers and falls in love with a young singer (Gaga). It marks the fourth remake of the original 1937 film, after the 1954 musical, the 1976 rock musical and the 2013 Bollywood romance film.

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The Favourite is a 2018 historical period comedy-drama film[4] directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, from a screenplay written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. A co-production of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States, the story focuses on the behind-the-scenes politics between two cousins jockeying to be court favourites during the reign of Queen Anne in the early 18th century. It stars Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, James Smith, and Mark Gatiss. Filming took place at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire and Hampton Court Palace, Richmond upon Thames, between March and May 2017.

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The Wife is a 2017 drama film directed by Björn Runge and written by Jane Anderson, based on the novel of the same name by Meg Wolitzer. It stars Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, and Christian Slater, and follows a wife who questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her narcissistichusband, who is set to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Wife premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September 2017,[3] and was theatrically released in the United States on 17 August 2018 by Sony Pictures Classics. It received positive reviews from critics, with major critical acclaim drawn towards Close's performance which some considered to be the best of her career. Close was nominated for several accolades including Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

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Mary Poppins Returns is a 2018 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, with a screenplay written by David Magee and a story by Magee, Marshall, and John DeLuca. Based on the book series by P. L. Travers, this sequel to 1964's Mary Poppins stars Emily Blunt as the eponymous character, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth, and Meryl Streep in supporting roles. Van Dyke is the only actor from the original to return, portraying the son of one of his original characters. Set in 1930s London, two decades after the events of the original film, it sees Poppins, the former nanny of Jane and Michael Banks, returning after a family tragedy.

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