Best Supporting Actor Category:
This years, female performers, in both lead and supporting categories, don’t have much to complain about. In fact, the two female races are more crowded and competitive, filled with Oscar-caliber turn than the Best Actor field.
I have divided the strong male supporting performances into three categories, each arranged alphabetically.
This is the 32nd year that I have been doing Oscar predictions. I began when my book, All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards, was first published, in 1986 (under the title And the Winner Is….). The book is now in its 11th edition and can be purchased on Amazon and other venues.
Featuring on its cover Halle Berry, the first black woman to ever win the Best Actress Oscar, in 2001, the book (updated every sic year) is now in its 11th edition.
Frontrunners
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Jason Mitchell, Mudbound
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Contenders:
Ray Romano, The Big Sick
Michael Shannon, The Shape of Water
Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name
Also in the Run:
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Analysis
This will be Willem Dafoe third Oscar nomination; the previous two were also in the supporting actor league.
Richard Jenkins has been nominated before, for Best Actor in “The Visitor.”
It will be a first time for the three other frontrunners: Armie Hammer (who was excellent but was not nominated for “The Social Network”), Jason Mitchell, and Sam Rockwell.
Christopher Plummer, who’s a former Supporting Actor Oscar winner, may earn a nod for his courage to replace the disgraced Kevin Spacey in such a short period of time.
