Questions we're asking ourselves about Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor

All Oscar charts are being updated over the next four days but we started with Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor because there are so many questions haunting us. So go ahead and answer the following quandaries if you can...?

1. Can Tom Hanks finally break his strange Oscar curse?
Before anyone had seen A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood he was a lock "on paper" in Best Actor. But the movie turned out to not be a biopic at all but something far more creative and we'd argue more successful than a biopic would have been, in which Mr. Rogers is more of a symbol and catalyst for another man's journey. It's a gorgeous movie but the switcheroo from expectations to reality will likely throw some Oscar voters as well as general moviegoers. Hanks has been delivering better performances of late than the kind he used to win Oscars for but AMPAS hasn't nominated him in 19 years. Should we expect that they'll continue that "you already got yours" cold shoulder rather than be predicting him? 

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Campaign flex - Lupita comes on strong

Between this hard-to-miss Variety ad and her recent campaign flex, reprising "Red" from Us at a haunted house, Lupita Nyong'o's Best Actress dream doesn't feel so far-fetched does it? Are you starting to be convinced that her second nomination could happen? We're getting there.

Horror is a great genre for actresses, as Jason's column often reminds us, but when it comes to Oscar nominations for the genre, they only happen if the movie was a huge hit (think The Sixth Sense, The Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs, etcetera). Us has got that part covered, too, since it's the only original film to secure a spot in the box office top ten of 2019 which is otherwise full of spin-offs and sequels. 

Monthly Calendar of the Oscar Fanatic

by Eurocheese

April – The musings that mean absolutely nothing except for those couple of Sundance films that may go the distance.

May – Maybe the Cannes Palme d’Or winner will win BP? Also, let’s talk in depth about the tech nods so we can discuss that one early blockbuster and make wild guesses about what could beat it.

June – Which summer blockbuster could WIN Best Picture? (Spoiler alert: None.)

July – We have early frontunners...

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"The Two Popes" rising...

by Nathaniel R

"I have four more Oscars nominations than you. I've also won!"

Yours truly is still trying to get back into the swing of daily life after the always delightful Middleburg Film Festival. At the conclusion of the festival, the votes were counted and The Two Popes emerged as the Audience Award winner. You may recall that Green Book won that prize just last year before it went on to very leggy box office (final international tally $321.7 million on only a $23 million budget) and the Best Picture Oscar win.

The Two Popes is a less controversial crowd-pleaser and surely an Oscar nomination threat for two categories...

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Oscar Chart Updates

Every category has been slightly revised now that we've seen Irishman, The Two Popes, and more and the buzz on Bombshell is out.

UPDATED CHARTS
INDEX | PICTURE | DIRECTOR
ACTRESS | ACTOR | SUPP' ACTRESS | SUPP' ACTOR |
SCREENPLAYS | VISUAL | SOUND |
ANIMATED & DOCUMENTARY | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE