2015 Oscar Predictions: Best Supporting Actor – Norton Soars, J.K. Simmons Conducts a Coup

Edward Norton (Birdman) holds court once again and by a healthy margin. He receives only 1st and 2nd place votes from the Gold Rush Gang, again, and keeps that healthy lead.

Another Foxcatcher casualty, Mark Ruffalo, falls a bit but stays in 2nd place. But, nipping at his heels is his Sony Pictures Classics competitor, Whiplash‘s J.K. Simmons. He moves up 10 points and is likely to keep rising. His performance is the stuff of Supporting Actor Oscar fodder and his veteran status all but assures him a nomination and possibly a win.

These top three contenders have votes from all ten Gold Rush Gang members.

Although Josh Brolin (Inherent Vice) retains the same vote total, he falls down the list and suffers the same fate as anything connected with the movie did this last month. We’ll see how the film’s debut at NYFF affects Brolin and the film in general in month’s results but we’re not holding our breath with plenty of contenders really and willing to take his place.

Selma supporting men Tim Roth and Tom Wilkinson switch spots with Roth in and Wilkinson out, for now. Playing the villain and hero roles of the white characters, respectively, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

The Boyhood love looks to be extending past Patricia Arquette as Ethan Hawke ends up just outside the top 5 this month. The supporting men from Unbroken find a small bit of support with Domhnall Gleeson debuting with a single vote from Jason and Miyavi still holding onto votes from Erik and David, but just barely.

Neil Patrick Harris and Philip Seymour Hoffman (A Most Wanted Man) lose votes entirely this month and fall off the chart but with the release of Gone Girl, look for Harris to possibly stage a major comeback. Even Tyler Perry might show up as the fourth and fifth spots in this category are really up for grabs.

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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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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.

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