Final Best Actor & Best Supporting Actor Thoughts

Dearest Reader, we know you want to move on from 2024 but please allow us our final indulgences for only one more week - promise! 

Jason Schwartzmann (Queer) was one of MANY supporting performances that might have been discussed this past year if Leads weren't usurping the supporting actor oxygen

by Nathaniel R

The film year has ended with Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) and Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) taking their Oscar categories. So... on account of the timeless procrastinator's slogan 'better late than never' I'm now sharing my own ballot. It was rather shocking / unpleasant (given my predilections) to realize that the men had arguably outdone the women (or at least equalled them) in acting achievements this past cinematic year. Nevertheless, since I far prefer watching / discussing actresses on the silver screen, I’m forcing the men to share one constrained listicle article. Take that, men – you can’t keep a good actressexual down.

Herewith the finalists (i.e. top dozen) for my own ballots in both Supporting Actor and Best Actor at the Film Bitch Awards. The official nominees are also announced... 

SUPPORTING (Alpha Order)

• Javier Bardem as “Stilgar” in Dune Part Two
• Yuri Borisov as “Igor” in Anora
• Austin Butler as “Feyd Rautha” in Dune Part Two
• Edward Norton as “Pete Seeger” in A Complete Unknown
• Guy Pearce as “Harrison Van Buren” in The Brutalist
• Adam Pearson as “Oswald” in A Different Man
• Jim Rash as “Lance Vesperine” in Fly Me to the Moon
• Richard Roundtree as “Ben” in Thelma
• Jason Schwartzman as “Joe Guidry” in Queer
• Cory Michael Smith as “Chevy Chase” in Saturday Night
• Jeremy Strong as “Roy Cohn” in The Apprentice
• Denzel Washington as “Macrinus” in Gladiator II

Since this year's Oscar lineup was so very strong, the brilliant performance from Culkin is the only nominee that's not featured on that list above. Instead he's in the lead list where he belongs. The supporting categories are usually the acting categories with the least overlap between the industry's annual shortlists and mine. Part of this is due to the fact that I ignore fraudulent campaigns. Part is on account of different tastes. And part is surely due to seeing films all year long unlike the average Academy voter who seems to hibernate between winters emerging to watch a dozen movies before voting.  For fun here are the stats on the alignment (or lack thereof) between myself and the Academy's acting branch over the past 10 seasons. 

• 2015 (1 of 5) the Oscar winner (Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies) was a finalist but not a nominee
• 2016 (1 of 5) the Oscar winner (Mahershala Ali, Moonlight) made my official lineup
• 2017 (1 of 5) the Oscar winner (Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards) was deemed "Lead" but did not make those finals
• 2018 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Mahershala Ali, Green Book) was correctly deemed "Lead" but did not make those finals
• 2019 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Brad Pitt, Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood) was correctly deemed "Lead" and took the bronze
• 2020 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah) was correctly deemed "Lead" but didn't make those finals
• 2021 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Troy Kostur, CODA) made my official lineup
• 2022 (3 of 5) the Oscar winner (Ke Huy Quan, EEAAO) took the silver medal
• 2023 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (RDJ, Oppenheimer) did not make my finalist list
• 2024 (4 of 5) the Oscar winner (Culkin, A Real Pain) was correctly deemed "Lead" and nominated in that category instead.

Okay moving on to the leading men.

LEAD (Alpha Order)

• Adrien Brody as “Lazlo Toth” in The Brutalist
• Timothée Chalamet as “Bob Dylan” in A Complete Unknown
• Daniel Craig as “Lee” in Queer
• Kieran Culkin as “Benji” in A Real Pain
• Colman Domingo as “Divine G” in Sing Sing
• Ralph Fiennes as “Cardinal Lawrence” in Conclave
• Ryan Gosling as “Colt Seavers” in The Fall Guy
• Hugh Grant as “Mr Reed” in Heretic
• Keith Kupferer as “Dan” in Ghostlight
• Glenn Powell as “Gary Johnson” in Hit Man
• Sebastian Stan as “Edward” in A Different Man
• Sebastian Stan as “Donald Trump” in The Apprentice 

If there were a “body of work” Oscar annually, 2024's would have to go to Sebastian Stan, right? The Winter Soldier gave two very differently demanding but enormously successful performances and to sweeten the achievement he was honored for both of them during awards season. Raise your hand if you first saw Stan in The Covenant (2006) and weren’t expecting much but to lust after him for a few years until casting directors moved on to the next TV-pretty boy. Oops, was that just me? It’s always so life-affirming when people prove everyone wrong by constantly levelling up as Stan has been doing fairly consistently and methodically since.

As previously noted in Oscar-focused articles, my own Film Bitch Awards for male actors are eerily close in both categories to industry preferences this year which is a complete rarity (especially in supporting where Oscar voters are usually crazy-lazy)! 

For fun here is how my own list aligned with Oscar lists for Lead Actor in the past ten years...

Adrien Brody won the Oscar. Will he win the Film Bitch Gold Medal? Stay tuned.

• 2015 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (DiCaprio, The Revenant) was a semi-finalist but not a nominee
• 2016 (1 of 5) the Oscar winner (Affleck, Manchester by the Sea) was the Bronze medalist
• 2017 (1 of 5) the Oscar winner (Oldman, The Darkest Hour) did not make the semi-finals
• 2018 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody) did not make the semi-finals
• 2019 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Phoenix, Joker) was a finalist but not a nominee
• 2020 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Hopkins, The Father) was the gold medalist here, too.
• 2021 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Smith, King Richard) made the semi-finals
• 2022 (3 of 5) the Oscar winner (Fraser, The Whale) did not make the semi-finals
• 2023 (2 of 5) the Oscar winner (Murphy, Oppenheimer) made my official lineup
• 2024 (2.5 of 5) the Oscar winner (Brody, The Brutalist) made my official lineup

Continue to the nominees and capsule quotes on these performances...

Comments

[Amy Camus]

You still have the Capsule Quote for Daniel Craig under the picture for Ralph Fiennes.

[TomG]

Did no one else appreciate Stanley Tucci in Conclave? I thought surely this would be an easy sail to a nomination for him but nothing materialized.

I am glad you included Jason Schwartzman in your lineup. He brought a much needed humor to this film.

[Mike in Canada]

Props for including both Glen Powell and Ryan Gosling - the two megawatt performances of the summer.
I feel like the only person who thinks Eisenberg is stronger than Culkin - in the restaurant scene, where, for once, it's all about him, is that movie's best performed scene.
And I thought I'd see more of the Anora dudes. An Igor must be balanced by a Vanya.