2018 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTOR (June) – Timothée Chalamet Hits the top 5; Cannes winner Joaquin Phoenix Debuts
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Unsurprisingly, Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) remains atop the list with a perfect score of 100, just as he did last month, something I don’t expect to change for a long time, if ever. Daniel Day-Lewis is still strong at #2 for Paul Thomas Anderson’s fashion project which now has a name – Phantom Thread. Tom Hanks holds on at #3 for Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers Project, which is at #1 in Best Picture and Best Director this month.
Andrew Garfield (Breathe) moves up one to #4 where he is tied with 21-year old Timothée Chalamet (Call My By Your Name). This is Chalamet’s highest ranking so far this year and it boots two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington (Inner City) out of the top 5. As you’ll see from Washington’s line, he only has votes from 6 out of 10 Gold Rush Gang members as some of us are holding back on votes until confirmation comes down that his film is coming out in 2017. Looking at this year’s crop of likely Best Actor contenders, it would be smart for Sony to make sure it does as there is a shocking lack of diversity in these choices. The only other non-white actor to receive votes again this month is Chadwick Boseman (Marshall) and digging into the Other Contenders list offers very little hope.
We only have one debut this month, newly crowned Cannes Best Actor winner for You Were Never Really Here at #11. Lots of drop-offs though, including Adam Sandler (The Meyerowitz Stories), Matt Damon (Downsizing) and Domhnall Gleeson (Goodbye Christopher Robin). Sandler and Gleeson debuted on the list last month. The only debut from last month to make the cut this month is Charlie Plummer (Lean on Pete).
Here are the 2018 Oscar predictions for Best Actor for June from the Gold Rush Gang. Keep an eye on all of the Gold Rush Gang’s 2018 Oscar predictions updated LIVE throughout the month.
Green – moves up from last month
Red – moves down from last month
Blue – debut/new entry
| BEST ACTOR | ERIK ANDERSON |
BRYAN BONAFEDE | GREG HOWARD | EVAN KOST |
JASON OSIASON | KENNETH POLISHCHUK |
DENIZCAN SÜRÜCÜ | RICHARD ANTHONY |
ŞÜKRÜ SÖĞÜT | MATT DINN | TOTAL POINTS |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 100 |
| 2 | Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 74 | |
| 3 | Tom Hanks – Untitled Steven Spielberg Pentagon Papers Project | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 66 |
| 4 | Andrew Garfield – Breathe | 6 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 51 |
| 4 | Timothée Chalamet – Call Me by Your Name | 5 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 51 |
| 6 | Denzel Washington – Inner City (possibly 2018) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 49 | ||||
| 7 | Bryan Cranston – Last Flag Flying | 6 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 44 | ||
| 8 | Chadwick Boseman – Marshall | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 30 | ||||
| 9 | Benedict Cumberbatch – The Current War | 10 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 25 |
| 10 | Hugh Jackman – The Greatest Showman | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 17 | |||
| 11 | Joaquin Phoenix – You Were Never Really Here | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 14 | ||||||
| 12 | Ben Stiller – Brad’s Status | 8 | 10 | 8 | 7 | |||||||
| 13 | Donald Sutherland – The Leisure Seeker | 7 | 9 | 6 | ||||||||
| 13 | Jake Gyllenhaal – Stronger | 7 | 9 | 6 | ||||||||
| 15 | Charlie Plummer – Lean on Pete | 9 | 10 | 3 | ||||||||
| OTHER CONTENDERS | ||||||||||||
| Adam Sandler – The Meyerowitz Stories | ||||||||||||
| Ali Fazal – Victoria and Abdul | ||||||||||||
| Andrew Garfield – Under the Silver Lake | ||||||||||||
| Anthony Mackie – Detroit | ||||||||||||
| Ben Foster – Galveston | ||||||||||||
| Benicio Del Toro – Soldado | ||||||||||||
| Billy Howle – On Chesil Beach | ||||||||||||
| Bryan Cranston – Untouchable | ||||||||||||
| Chiwetel Ejiofor – Come Sunday | ||||||||||||
| Christian Bale – Hostiles | ||||||||||||
| Clive Owen – Andorra | ||||||||||||
| Colin Farrell – The Beguiled | ||||||||||||
| Colin Farrell – The Killing of a Sacred Deer | ||||||||||||
| Colin Firth – The Mercy | ||||||||||||
| Daniel Craig – Kings | ||||||||||||
| Demetrius Shipp, Jr. – All Eyez On Me | ||||||||||||
| Domhnall Gleeson – Goodbye Christopher Robin | ||||||||||||
| Fionn Whitehead – Dunkirk | ||||||||||||
| Idris Elba – The Mountain Between Us | ||||||||||||
| James McAvoy – Submergence | ||||||||||||
| Jamie Bell – Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool | ||||||||||||
| Jason Clarke – Chappaquiddick | ||||||||||||
| Jason Clarke – The Aftermath | ||||||||||||
| Jason Clarke – The Man with the Iron Heart | ||||||||||||
| Javier Bardem – Escobar | ||||||||||||
| Javier Bardem – mother! | ||||||||||||
| Jean-Louis Trintignant – Happy End | ||||||||||||
| Joaquin Phoenix – Mary Magdalene | ||||||||||||
| Jonathan Pryce – The Wife | ||||||||||||
| Kenneth Branagh – Murder on the Orient Express | ||||||||||||
| Liam Neeson – The Silent Man | ||||||||||||
| Matt Damon – Downsizing | ||||||||||||
| Matt Damon – Suburbicon | ||||||||||||
| Michael Douglas – Head Full of Honey | ||||||||||||
| Michael Fassbender – The Snowman | ||||||||||||
| Michael Shannon – The Current War | ||||||||||||
| Oscar Isaac – Life Itself | ||||||||||||
| Ryan Gosling – Blade Runner 2049 | ||||||||||||
| Steve Carell – Battle of the Sexes | ||||||||||||
| Tom Hardy – Fonzo |
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.
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