Best Actress Oscar
I saw "A Woman Under the Influence" this week for the first time and was totally blown away by Gena Rowlands' performance. It's one of the greatest performances ever captured on film. If you don't believe me, just watch the scene in which Nick decides it's time to put Mabel in the hospital and he's holding her while her eyes are rolling around as if she's trying her best to fight her mental illness. She's definitely in mental pain, and her eyes show it. It's a chilling, remarkable performance.
She definitely deserved the Oscar in a year with other strong female performances -- Ellen Burtsyn in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (who won), Valerie Perrine in "Lenny" and Faye Dunaway in "Chinatown." Rowlands probably lost because Academy voters considered the film too depressing, a "downer."
Again, I consider her performance one of the greatest on film.