Julianne Moore wins best actress Oscar for Still Alice role

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/23/julianne-moore-oscar-best-actress

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Julianne Moore’s powerful portrayal of an Alzheimer’s sufferer in Still Alice has won her the Academy Award for best actress, after missing out on an acting Oscar four times before.

The 54-year-old actress was the red hot favourite for the win after securing a Golden Globe and a Bafta for the role. The film, based on a bestselling novel from Lisa Genova, tells the tale of a linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Related: Still Alice is ‘shockingly accurate’ – people living with dementia give their verdict

She beat out competition from Reese Witherspoon, Rosamund Pike, Marion Cotillard and Felicity Jones. It was a much-deserved win for Moore, who’d previously been nominated for Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far From Heaven and The Hours.

It was the sole nomination for the film, directed by Richard Glatzer and his partner Wash Westmoreland, who last collaborated for The Last of Robin Hood in 2013, which starred Kevin Kline as Errol Flynn.

Next up for Julianne Moore, after her much-delayed turn as an evil witch in the critically loathed fantasy Seventh Son, is a role as Ellen Page’s girlfriend in the fact-based drama Freeheld and a key role in the final Hunger Games chapter, out later this year.

The Academy Awards are taking place at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles and are being hosted by Gone Girl star Neil Patrick Harris.