The Oscars' acting races are packed with real drama.
THE Oscars' acting races are packed with real drama.
Having two major roles in the lead race, Denzel Washington and Philip Seymour Hoffman must not only survive battles against themselves (academy rules permit actors only one nomination per category), but also with Johnny Depp wielding a razor as crazed Sweeney Todd.
Meanwhile, can Angelina Jolie's passionate support pump new awards hope into "A Mighty Heart"?
BEST ACTOR
Favorites
George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"
John Cusack, "Grace Is Gone"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd"
Tom Hanks, "Charlie Wilson's War"
Emile Hirsch, "Into the Wild"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" / "The Savages"
Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"
James McAvoy, "Atonement"
Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises"
Jack Nicholson, "The Bucket List"
Denzel Washington, "American Gangster" / "The Great Debaters"
Spotlight: Many Oscar gurus believe Daniel Day-Lewis is the front-runner because he gives the most dynamic performance of the year as a Texas prospector whose inner furies erupt like a gusher when he strikes oil in "There Will Be Blood." But Day-Lewis was also the favorite five years ago for portraying fiendish Bill the Butcher in "Gangs of New York." Again, he might be punished for the sins of his character.
Possible
Mathieu Amalric, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Josh Brolin, "No Country for Old Men"
Russell Crowe, "3:10 to Yuma"
Benicio Del Toro, "Things We Lost in the Fire"
Frank Langella, "Starting Out in the Evening"
Brad Pitt, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Sam Riley, "Control"
Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Spotlight: Just because a few ornery film critics went gunning for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" doesn't mean Brad Pitt's Oscar hopes are dead. Golden Globe voters will probably give him a shot, considering how much they love superstars. After winning the Globe in 1995, Pitt was nominated by Oscar voters in the supporting race for "12 Monkeys" and now he's packing a secret weapon: He portrays a real-life character, just like the last three winners in this category (Forest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jamie Foxx) and 19 others before them.
Long shots
Casey Affleck, "Gone Baby Gone"
Christian Bale, "Rescue Dawn" / "3:10 to Yuma"
Steve Carell, "Dan in Real Life"
Don Cheadle, "Talk to Me"
Richard Gere, "The Hoax"
Morgan Freeman, "The Bucket List"
Spotlight: Oscar voters owe Richard Gere big time. They've never nominated him throughout his 30-year career, not even for the role that won him a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild bid in Oscar's best picture winner "Chicago." Could they possibly have something against sleazy showbiz lawyers? Or Gere himself? Miramax plans a DVD push of spring release "The Hoax" to remind award voters of what the L.A. Times called Gere's "richest, most mature performance" as con man Clifford Irving, who nearly succeeded in peddling a fake Howard Hughes autobiography.
