Nicolas Cage, Dream Scenario
Cage excels in this dark comedy, playing a boring husband, father and academic who suddenly starts appearing in the dreams of strangers, making him world famous — for better and worse.
The performance evokes memories of his Oscar-nominated turn in Adaptation.
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of the bi-sexual composer Leonard Bernstein brought him his fifth acting Oscar nomination and first since he was nominated for A Star Is Born in 2019.
Netflix is campaigning hard for him — and also for Rustin’s Colman Domingo in the category.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
Colman Domingo, Rustin
For the first major film assignment, this Emmy-winning star of Euphoria has won universal raves. He brings heart, mind and soul to the part of Bayard Rustin, a Black and gay civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington.
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
This landed a best actor nomination 19 years after his prior collaboration with Alexander Payne on indie darling Sideways, for which he was snubbed.
He again plays a crusty boarding school instructor forced to stay on campus during Christmas break.
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
The Irishman best known for the TV series Peaky Blinders has been doing notable work in film for more than 20 years. But never before has he played a part as widely seen or praised as that of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic.
Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
Fleabag’s “hot priest” has received the strongest reviews of his career for his quiet work in Andrew Haigh’s supernatural tale about a man who reunites with the parents he lost when he was 12. He has already received a best lead performance Gotham Award nom.
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
One of the most revered actors who’s never received an Oscar nom, this Emmy winner arguably gives the performance of his career as a cranky college professor who writes books that nobody reads — until he writes one, of a very different sort, under a pen name.
