“I was 19 at the time this story takes place in Southern California, so (…) when I read the script was the first time I had read something that was placed where I was from, first of all.”, Annette Bening shared with us, talking about the road that took her to Dorothea, mater familias of a very peculiar kind of improvised family, in 1979 Santa Barbara, CA in writer-director Mike Mills’ film.  “When I first looked at (the script) I personally made a lot of connections in a way that I haven’t on many screenplays. I found myself wanting to go and rummage around in my boxes and I had all these associations and memories. This is Bening’s eighth nomination; she won twice in this very category- in 2005 for Being Julia and in 2011 for The Kids Are All Right.