2018 Oscar Predictions – SUPPORTING ACTOR (March)

Erik Anderson March 8, 2017

Top: Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Shannon, Steve Buscemi Bottom: Jason Mitchell, Ben Mendelsohn — Top: Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Shannon, Steve BuscemiBottom: Jason Mitchell, Ben Mendelsohn

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]

This year’s batch of Supporting Actor hopefuls is rich with to the possibility of a lot of first-time nominees. Right now, our top 10 predictions have eight potential newcomers to Oscar.

At the top is Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name. The enormously prolific character actor plays the father of a 17-year old son who begins a torrid summer affair with the family’s 24-year old male boarder (played by Armie Hammer, another Supporting Actor contender) in Italy and his closing speech in the film is the stuff of Oscar.

Michael Shannon, a two-time Oscar nominee, is close by with The Current War where he plays George Westinghouse to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Thomas Edison. Shannon could be a co-lead but the smart play is to put him in supporting. Not only is it where Shannon has earned his two Oscar nominations, there haven’t been two Best Actor nominees from the same film since 1984’s Amadeus.

Steve Buscemi could earn his first Oscar nomination from A24’s Lean on Me, especially if it becomes the Oscar-winning studio’s #1 push. Jason Mitchell, who broke through with Straight Outta Compton two years ago, could be in for another breakthrough – an Oscar nomination – for Mudbound. Emmy-winner and Rogue One star Ben Mendelsohn also looks strong for Darkest Hour.

Below that is a wide swath of supporting actor potential from Oscar winner Javier Bardem in mother!, Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown in Marshall, John Boyega and Anthony Mackie in Kathryn Bigelow’s Untitled Detroit Riots Project and Idris Elba in Molly’s Game.

Here are the first Best Supporting Actor predictions of the 2018 Oscar season from the new Gold Rush Gang:

	SUPPORTING ACTOR	ERIK ANDERSON	BRYAN BONAFEDE	GREG HOWARD	EVAN KOST	JASON OSIASON	KENNETH POLISHCHUK	DENIZCAN SÜRÜCÜ	RICHARD ANTHONY	ŞÜKRÜ SÖĞÜT	MATT DINN	TOTAL POINTS

1	Michael Stuhlbarg – Call Me By Your Name	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	7	1	1	92
2	Michael Shannon – The Current War	3	2	2	2	3	1	2	3	2	4	86
3	Steve Buscemi – Lean on Pete	6	3	5	3	4	3	6	1	6	6	67
4	Jason Mitchell – Mudbound	2		4	4	10	4	4	5	3	7	56
4	Ben Mendelsohn – Darkest Hour	10	7	3	5	4	5	3	2	7	8	56

6	Idris Elba – Molly’s Game	4	5	6	10		7	7	8	4	5	43
7	Colin Farrell – Inner City (possibly 2018)		4			10	6		4		2	29
8	Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri		6	10	6	5	10	9			3	28
9	Javier Bardem – mother!		8	7	7	7			10	8	10	20
10	Sterling K. Brown – Marshall	8		8	8		9	8		9		16
11	John Boyega – Unititled Kathryn Bigelow Detriot Riots Project	5		9	9		8					13
12	Woody Harrelson – The Glass Castle	7						5				10
13	Joaquin Phoenix – Mary Magdalene					8				5		9
14	Armie Hammer – Call Me By Your Name					9			6	10		8
15	Garrett Hedlund – Mudbound					6						5
15	Anthony Mackie – Unititled Kathryn Bigelow Detriot Riots Project	9						10	9			5
17	Steve Carell – Last Flag Flying		9								9	4
18	Oscar Isaac – Suburbicon		10									1

	OTHER CONTENDERS
	Alessandro Nivola – Disobedience
	Ali Fazal – Victoria and Abdul
	Chiwetel Ejiofor – Mary Magdalene
	Christoph Waltz – Downsizing
	Daniel Brühl – Entebbe
	Domhnall Gleeson – mother!
	Ed Harris – mother!
	John Hurt – Darkest Hour
	Kevin Costner – Molly’s Game
	Mark Rylance – Dunkirk
	Oscar Isaac – Annihilation
	Oscar Isaac – The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
	Stanley Tucci – The Children Act

Author
Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.