1946: Supporting Actress

I've been doing these retrospectives since 2011. In that time, there have been nominees that left me in awe, nominees whose inclusion baffled me, and entire categories where any of the options would be the right choice, so strong a lineup is it. Best Supporting Actress 1946 is the first time I've encountered a category that is the opposite. One can choose the best of this specific set of five, but how on earth did any of these five make it to the top of anyone's ballot? 

What about Virginia Mayo in The Best Years of Our Lives? Margaret Rutherford in Blithe Spirit? Doris Dowling in The Blue Dahlia? Maria Casares in Children of Paradise? Spring Byington in Dragonwyck? Angela Lansbury or Virginia O'Brien in The Harvey Girls? Ruth Nelson in Humoresque? Gloria Grahame in It's a Wonderful Life? Constance Collier in Kitty? Madame Konstantin in Notorious? Glynis Johns in Vacation from Marriage? Hell, keep Gale Sondergaard, but honor her work in The Time of Their Lives instead! How did we wind up with....these?

"These" being:

1946: Winter Into Spring

Isn't this something? Yesterday, we talked about 1945 films that somehow qualified for the 1946 Oscars; today, we talk about the first three months of 1946 cinema. And I say "isn't this something" because, between the two, they give us nine of the 36 nominees eventually up for Academy Awards, a full 1/4 of the whole lineup. With few exceptions, these days we rarely discuss films released before October!

January through mid-March, here are a baker's dozen of 1946 flicks: