Oscar nomination

It's not, sadly. The singular praise in the cast is being credited to Octavia Spencer by the precursor awards (e.g., SAG, GG).
Spencer is a more familiar face they've awarded in the past, so she's a safer bet anyhow.

Not necessarily. And Taraji is a familiar face as well.

No, it's pretty secure at this point for Octavia Spencer. It's not common at all for actors who have not been getting precursor nominations in their films to pop out of nowhere and get one. Even less likely when other actors in the same movies are the ones being fixated on.

Taraji is definitely a familiar face, but she has been shut out by much of the awards season - more so than Monae (or the ones that matter for the Oscars).

Taraji deserves accolades way more than Octavia who although is good, didn't have any stand out scenes. And while Janelle made a solid acting debut, it certainly wasn't Oscar worthy.

Can't believe she's gotten more award recognition for Empire than Hidden Figures.

I hope not. She managed to single handedly drag this movie down. It would have been so much better with anybody else in her role.

All three women did a terrific job in this film. I was surprised to see Janelle Monae as one of the three lead roles as I didn't know she acted, and now looking at her credits, this is pretty much her first real role. Most actresses have to put in a lot of small guest appearances before they get to something this big. Good for Janelle. I loved seeing her with a "real" hairdo as the only times I have ever seen her on TV she has always had that pompadour. Don't know if she still does that. It may have been a few years now. Anyway, to the point, I think Monae has put in a great performance in Hidden Figures. Probably not Oscar worthy as the role didn't give her the material for that, but still very polished. I thought she was great.

Taraji P. Henson did a good job. Octavia Spencer was a bore and I can't believe she got an Oscar nomination even in a PC year. I'm pretty sure I saw Janelle Monáe reading her lines in a few scenes. Glad she didn't get one and if anybody from the movie should have received a nomination it should have been Henson, not Spencer. Ultimately, none of them should have. I'm pretty sure most of the voters did not see the movie.