Jessica Tandy, for *Driving Miss Daisy. *Though it was certainly deserved, it seemed like their last chance to give her an Oscar . . . the one award she hadn’t already won.
I do! It’s a great, old-fashioned performance.
Better than her performances in Raintree Country, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or Suddenly Last Summer?
Better than her performance in Raintree County, yes. Camille Paglia has written, “A cardinal film of my adolescence, Butterfield 8 imprinted me forever with its Babylonian vision of carnal woman.”
Butterfield 8 huh? Well now I know what movie to rent and watch on Christmas, thanks 
I don’t know whether this counts or not, but surely all the Oscars won by The Return of the King were for the trilogy as a whole, and not because that film was so much more Oscar-worthy than the other two.
It cannot be said that an Oscar is a “consolation” Oscar if the performance which wins it is worthy of winning, unless that performance won against a performance the same year which, in any other year would have been a hands-down, no-question-about-it winning performance.
Thus, to assert that an Oscar is a “consolation” prize, you have to (IMHO) demonstrate one of two things: the performance was not really Oscar worthy, but won anyway, or the performance was Oscar worthy, but beat out a performance that in any other year was a hands-down winner.
Otherwise, while sentiment may have played a part, it’s unfair to the winner to say that it was a consolation Oscar, when in fact they acted well enough to win, regardless of who they were.