Anne Hathaway’s Oscar Path for ‘The Odyssey’ Sparks Lead-vs-Supporting Debate

Christopher Nolan’s ancient-world epic has spent the back half of the summer proving that a three-hour adaptation of Homer could still be a box office event. ‘The Odyssey‘ opened in mid-July to a wave of critical praise and enormous crowds, instantly positioning itself as one of the year’s biggest awards contenders months before the fall festival circuit even began.

Much of that praise has centered on the film’s sprawling ensemble, led by Matt Damon as Odysseus and featuring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong’o. Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, the queen of Ithaca who spends twenty years fending off suitors while awaiting her husband’s return, and her performance has drawn some of the loudest reviews of the entire cast.

Now the conversation is shifting to strategy. Variety reported that Universal is weighing whether to campaign Hathaway in the supporting actress category for this awards season, even though she logs roughly 69 minutes of screen time in the film’s 173-minute runtime, more than a third of the movie.

That math is exactly why the decision isn’t simple. Some awards analysts argue Hathaway’s role functions as a true co-lead opposite Damon, with Penelope facing stakes just as consequential as Odysseus’s own journey home, which would make a case for placing her in the lead actress race instead.

History cuts both ways. Judd Hirsch scored a supporting nomination for just eight minutes of screen time in ‘The Fabelmans,’ while his co-star Michelle Williams successfully pushed for lead consideration in the same film despite skepticism from category strategists. Those precedents show the Academy has tolerated flexible placement in recent years, whichever direction a studio decides to go.

There’s also a cautionary tale hovering over the whole debate. Emily Blunt played a similarly pivotal spouse role, Kitty Oppenheimer, in Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer,’ and was nominated for supporting actress only to lose even as the film swept seven Oscars including best picture. It’s a reminder that landing a nomination in the “easier” category doesn’t guarantee a win, especially when a film is dominant across the board.

Filing Hathaway as supporting could also create in-house competition, since ‘The Odyssey’ features awards buzz for Morton’s Circe and Theron’s Calypso as well. A crowded supporting field from a single film has historically split votes more often than it’s produced a winner, with only about a third of such double-nominee pairings actually resulting in a trophy for either actress.

For now, nothing is finalized. Nolan has a long-standing habit of avoiding awards conversations until well after a film’s release, and formal category discussions between the studio and Hathaway’s team reportedly aren’t expected to begin in earnest until later this fall. Universal has time before festival season forces its hand, and the studio will be watching how the rest of the fall lineup shapes up before committing to a lane.

A film by Christopher Nolan shot entirely with IMAX film cameras. Watch The Odyssey trailer and experience the film in theaters 7 17 26. pic.twitter.com/Lqap9dFI09

— The Odyssey Movie (@odysseymovie) December 22, 2025

Hathaway has only landed one lead actress nomination in her seventeen-year career, for 2014’s ‘Les Misérables’ win came in supporting, so either path would mark a notable moment for her. Whichever category Universal ultimately chooses, ‘The Odyssey’ looks like it’s going to be part of the best picture conversation regardless.

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