Now it’s time for the real races at the 88th Academy Awards. OK, the Best Picture race is crazy as well, but the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories are also home to some drama.
The fact is, the Best Supporting Actress category is the most wide-open of all four acting categories. The Best Supporting Actor award is just a toss-up between Creed’s Sylvester Stallone and Bridge of Spies’ Mark Rylance (although my money says Stallone).
Best Supporting Actress is home to two examples of category fraud - both The Danish Girl’s Alicia Vikander and Carol’s Rooney Mara could have been considered lead stars - so it will be interesting to see if the Academy falls for the campaigning shenanigans or goes for a genuine supporting performance. Steve Jobs’ Kate Winslet stands a chance at beating both of them.
The supporting categories feature exactly two previous Oscar winners among them. Winslet previously won Best Actress for The Reader (another example of category fraud, as other awards considered that a supporting performance) and The Big Short’s Christian Bale won Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter.
And here are the 10 supporting nominees: