Even though it’s only the beginning of November, most analysts believe the five nominees in the Best Actor Oscar category are already set: Bruce Dern (“Nebraska”), Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”), Tom Hanks (“Captain Phillips”), Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”), and Robert Redford (“All Is Lost”). I’ve already seen the middle three performances and agree that they are all deserving of nominations. Those who have seen “All Is Lost” say it’s the performance of Redford’s career, and there has been strong buzz coming-off of director Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska”.
Therefore, the million dollar question is: Can anyone else sneak in a steal one of these spots? Steve Carell and George Clooney are out since their films, “Foxcatcher” and “The Monuments Men”, have been moved to 2014. A great performance from earlier this year, Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”, is tough to overlook.
And still to come: Oscar Isaac in the Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis”, Christian Bale in David O. Russell’s “American Hustle”, Joaquin Phoenix in Spike Jonze’s romantic drama “Her”, Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street”, and Ben Stiller in his own movie – “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. However, “Mitty” received a mixed reaction at the New York Film Festival, which may have hurt Stiller’s chances.
And there’s still a performance I’m very much looking forward to: Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”. It will be interesting to see if he’s can equal, or even surpass that of Morgan Freeman, who was nominated just a few years ago for playing Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus”.
In short, while there’s a clear-cut Top 5, it’s still too early to call this race over.