Thursday, February 6, 2020

Oscar Predictions: Best Supporting Actor & Actress

The Oscars are coming up yet again. The guilds, Globes, BAFTAs, and critics have all made their picks. Now it's my turn to figure out what it all means with my multi-part Oscar predictions.

I'm going to go through each of the Oscar categories, tell you what has been nominated and won elsewhere, and order the nominees from who I think is most to least likely to win on Oscar night. That doesn't mean I'll be right, but it does mean I'll be informed. Wish me luck.

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Glossary:
BAFTA - British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards
Golden Globe - Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
SAG - Screen Actors Guild Award

Best Supporting Actress
(In Order of Likelihood)

1. Laura Dern (Marriage Story)
Golden Globes - Supporting Actress - Winner
SAG - Supporting Actress - Winner
BAFTA - Supporting Actress – Winner

2. Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)
SAG - Supporting Actress - Nominee
BAFTA - Supporting Actress – Nominee

3. Margot Robbie (Bombshell)
Golden Globes - Supporting Actress - Nominee
SAG - Supporting Actress - Nominee
BAFTA - Supporting Actress – Nominee

4. Kathy Bates (Richard Jewell)
Golden Globes - Supporting Actress - Nominee

5. Florence Pugh (Little Women)
BAFTA - Supporting Actress – Nominee

Actresses switching from Supporting to Lead between different organizations makes the metrics a little tricky, so I’ll leave you with the only numbers that matter in this case. The last 8 times the Golden Globes, SAG, and BAFTA Awards agreed on a winner, she also won the Oscar. Laura Dern has got this. In a lot of ways, 2019 was the year of Laura Dern with her running away with the second season of Big Little Lies and giving polar opposite performances in two Best Picture nominees.

Dern doesn’t even have a proper sparring partner this year. Scarlett Johansson is missing the Golden Globe nomination. Margot Robbie is the only other actress to get all three precursor nominations, but her narrative never caught on. Kathy Bates and Florence Pugh are mainly just there to fill out the field.

Best Supporting Actor
(In Order of Likelihood)

Golden Globes - Supporting Actor - Winner
SAG - Supporting Actor - Winner
BAFTA - Supporting Actor – Winner 

2. Al Pacino (The Irishman)
Golden Globes - Supporting Actor - Nominee
SAG - Supporting Actor - Nominee
BAFTA - Supporting Actor – Nominee 

Golden Globes - Supporting Actor - Nominee
SAG - Supporting Actor - Nominee
BAFTA - Supporting Actor – Nominee 

4. Joe Pesci (The Irishman)
Golden Globes - Supporting Actor - Nominee
SAG - Supporting Actor - Nominee
BAFTA - Supporting Actor – Nominee 

5. Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)
Golden Globes - Supporting Actor - Nominee
BAFTA - Supporting Actor – Nominee 

Just like Supporting Actress, the last 8 times the Golden Globes, SAG, and BAFTA Awards agreed on a winner, he also won the Oscar. Brad Pitt is a Hollywood icon whose only Oscar is for producing 12 Years a Slave. He’s been glad-handing all over town. The narrative has fully taken hold. “It’s his time.”

And, like Laura Dern, Pitt doesn’t even have a good challenger for the award. The last time the Academy awarded Pacino, he followed that with 20 years of hammy performances. In 1992, “two-time winner Al Pacino” sounded like a given. He’s fully tarnished that reputation. Besides, there’s no consensus about whether he or Pesci is the better supporting performance in The Irishman. As a society, we fully take Tom Hanks for granted. His own “it’s his time” campaign for a third Oscar is coming soon, but not this year. Then there’s Anthony Hopkins as this year’s “happy to be here” nominee.

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