This year’s ridiculously stacked Best Supporting Actor category

One of the most competitive awards categories in recent memory.

Image: Paramount Pictures

This newsletter is not, and has never been, primarily a vehicle for Oscar speculation. When I review movies, I tend not to delve too much into their awards prospects, mostly because I don’t primarily view the world of film through that lens.

Awards are something I think about during awards season, and not all year long, especially when one of my critics’ groups has an awards deadline coming up. This weekend, I was filling out a couple of awards ballots, and I noticed something: The Best Supporting Actor category, this year, is absurdly stacked, and I had trouble narrowing my choices down to the required number.

(No, I will not be doing this for every category. And while I liked Conclave as much as anyone else, I didn’t find any of the supporting, non-Fiennes actors award-worthy.)

A look at who the contenders are, at least 15 of them:

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Culkin collected awards for four years playing the world’s most loathsome failson, Roman Roy, on Succession, and he’s made a smooth transition to movie awards contention with his turn as Benji Kaplan, a troubled guy who goes on a trip to Poland with his cousin (Jesse Eisenberg.)

He seems to be the favorite for his turn as Benji, who uses an extroverted personality to mask his depression; it’s also a positive development that the “Jewface” panic seems to have subsided, as the non-Jewish Culkin is playing this super-Jewish part and it doesn’t appear anyone cares.

Ben Chaplin, September 5

Another example of the same thing is Chaplin, also a non-Jewish actor playing a Jewish character. He plays Marvin Bader, an ABC Sports producer who was clearly uncomfortable, as a Jew, with the Israeli Olympic team being taken hostage, although most of that discomfort is done wordlessly.

Chaplin, who is English, was a Handsome Actor of the 1990s, possibly best known for The Truth About Cats and Dogs with Uma Thurman and Janeane Garafolo, and was later in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. The Oscars love a comeback, especially someone who’s been away a very long time.

Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro, in the same film, are also contenders; my theory is that ABC Sports anchor Jim McKay, who appears only in archival footage and isn’t played by an actor, is the film’s true lead.

Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

In my favorite film of 2024, Pearce gives a towering villain performance, that recalls Daniel Day-Lewis’ turn as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. He’s a bad guy, yes, but also something resembling an avatar of the dark side of American capitalism.

Joe Alwyn, who had never made the slightest impression on me in any other movie, is also quite good as Pearce’s son.

Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown

Norton was nominated for an Oscar for his first-ever movie performance, in Primal Fear in 1996, and was nominated again mid-career for Birdman in 2014.

Now, Norton segues into the old-man phase of his career for his turn as folk legend Pete Seeger. He isn’t usually the type of actor who often disappears into roles, but this time he does.