2025 Oscars slugfest: Experts debate Best Actor and who will take that fifth spot [Watch]
Are Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), and Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) locked in for the 2025 Oscars Best Actor race?
That seems to be the consensus according to five top Oscar experts from major media outlets: Gold Derby’s Debra Birnbaum, Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Variety’s Clayton Davis, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, and Indiewire’s Anne Thompson. Watch their 2025 Oscars slugfest video above.
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But who will take that fifth slot when nominations are announced on Jan. 17?
“There’s some really dark horses here,” declares Hammond. “There’s a movie called ‘The Performance’ that Jeremy Piven is in. When you see this movie, you go, ‘Woah!’ This guy tap dances like you’ve never seen and it’s a story about the Holocaust and World War II, in a very different way. Boy he’s out there doing this!”
Birnbaum brings up “The Apprentice,” stating, “Before the election, Sebastian Stan would have been in the conversation. We have not talked about the impact of the election.” Hammond interjects, “I think he should be in the conversation,” before Thompson quickly fires back, “That movie was never in the conversation.”
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“It played in Cannes, and it’s played well in Europe, but Americans don’t want to see it. That’s just the bottom line,” Thompson continues. Davis says Stan’s bigger problem could be the fact that he’s competing with himself, delivering another high-powered performance in “A Different Man.”
Feinberg continued the speculation about Stan, stating, “At the [actors] roundtable, where he was representing both of his movies, the performance that the other participants, who are all pretty major contenders, were focused on was him and ‘The Apprentice.’ I still believe that other actors can make that happen. I’m not saying it’s a done deal, but I would not be shocked if he and Jeremy Strong were to get nominated.”
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Davis says his fifth slot is between Daniel Craig for “Queer” and Paul Mescal in “Gladiator II.” “Daniel Craig because he’s never been nominated before,” he states. “You can have your feelings about ‘Queer,’ but he’s never been nominated before and in many ways it is the performance of his career. When it comes to Paul Mescal, popcorn movie, and Russell Crowe got in for the first one. And let me add, if you think Denzel Washington really is contending, chances are Paul is close to getting in.”
Birnbaum agrees that Academy members vote down ballot, noting, “If you see ‘Conclave,’ you’ll check off a lot of boxes, you’ll see a lot of performances. ‘The Brutalist,’ it will hit a lot of boxes. ‘Gladiator’ is going to do the same thing. Some of the films with just one performance are going to struggle.”
Finally, Feinberg explains that the Academy is larger and younger than ever before, “So we are having more people voting, having seen fewer movies than ever before. That is why we have been seeing, and that is why we may continue to see, less spreading around of the nominees.”
Who do YOU think will be nominated for the Best Actor Oscar?
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