Oscar Actor Hierarchy 2024 Edition

by Nathaniel R

Just one more nomination and the Poor Things men will make the list!

When we last updated the male version of this list Anthony Hopkins had yet to win his second Oscar for The Father (2021). Also moving up the list since then are Denzel Washington (who forced an expansion of the throne room itself with his 9th acting nod via Tragedy of Macbeth) and Robert De Niro with his 8th nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon. Despite a few moves up the latter the only "new" entry is Bradley Cooper, scoring his 5th acting nod for Maestro though that poor things duo Mark Ruffalo (just nominated) and Willem Dafoe (just missed)  both feel likely to enter in the next year or three given how often they work and the plum roles that come there way. They have identical Oscar stats with 4 nominations and 0 wins each.   

What follows is a list of Oscar's 35 All Time Favorite Actors. As with the women this royal club is restricted to men with 5 or more nominations. Only the acting statistics are accounted for so George Clooney, for example, is not (yet) ranked...

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Split Decision: "Poor Things"

No two people feel the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here's Abe Friedtanzer and Nick Taylor on Poor Things…

NICK: Hello Abe! Congratulations on Poor Things winning the Team Experience Award for Best Picture. I’m glad a film that moves, sounds, and dresses in such an offbeat manner has become such a critical and popular hit. It’s always nice to see weird art winning. That being said, I don’t count myself as a fan of Poor Things, and have a lot of complaints I could throw at its many, many, unapologetic excesses. Still, I like starting these Split Decision panels on notes of praise, and I’d really love to hear what you think of Poor Things.

ABE: Hey Nick! Always happy to chat about movies. I had the pleasure of seeing Poor Things at the New York Film Festival back in September right after May December, a film that many liked that I did not. I've been a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos' since the incredible Oscar-nominated Greek film Dogtooth, and I found both The Lobster and The Favourite extremely interesting and engaging. I was very turned off, however, by The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Lanthimos' offbeat nature and his winning blend of pitch-black comedy and drama is usually quite effective, but Poor Things is a departure even from that…

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Best Supporting Actor Ballot, Theirs and Mine.

by Nathaniel R

OPPENHEIMER

Last time we discussed TFE's second favourite category (Best Supporting Actress)... or is it actually our favourite category given how often we speak of it? (hmmm).  Now it's time for the male half. Historically Best Supporting Actor, is dullest acting category at the Oscars. It's not just that the roles aren't always as interesting as those the women get to play, but that Oscar chooses so weakly.

Once again this season it's a category that feels a little thin with an obvious future winner who definitely has fine moments but doesn't exactly do anything with his role that dozens of other solid actors wouldn't have. You can guess that RDJ is not on my own ballot! Nevertheless, let's discuss Oscar's choices and my own dozen favourites from 2023 (and your favourites in the comments)... 

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One Week Later - Nomination Joys

by Nathaniel R

Mark Ruffalo in "Poor Things"

You've had time to thoroughly process the Oscar nominations and time to finish the quick grief cycle around "snubs". It's time to look on the bright side. We polled our team on which nominations, above and below the line, gave them the most joy. Here are their answers. We hope to hear yours, too, in the comments...

BIGGEST JOY (Above the Line)

Comedic performances rarely get any sort of recognition, and we had THREE in the same category! 

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Best Supporting Actor: Is double-dipping the new trend?

by Cláudio Alves

For decades, it wasn't unusual to see two thespians from the same film nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but the same couldn't be said about its brother category. That was until recently when double-dipping in Supporting Actor became fashionable. 

It started in 2017, with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri's Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. In 2019, it was Joe Pesci and Al Pacino for The Irishman, and then Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeit Stanfield for Judas and the Black Messiah in 2020. The following year, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee did the honors for The Power of the Dog, while, in 2022, The Banshees of Inisherin got in with Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan. For comparison, in the same period, Supporting Actress only had two such cases, with The Favourite and last year's Everything Everywhere All At Once. Now, the question is whether the trend will continue at the 96th Academy Awards…

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