2018 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTOR (May) – Oldman Still Tops; Gleeson, Sandler and Plummer Debut

Erik Anderson May 3, 2017

Gary Oldman is still smoking the competition but May sees debuts from Domhnall Gleeson, Adam Sandler and Charlie Plummer

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Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) remains atop our Best Actor predictions for a third month in a row and still with a perfect score of 100. Daniel Day-Lewis (Paul Thomas Anderson’s Untitled Fashion Project) also holds onto his spot, #2, and amazingly with the same point total as last month, 73.

Tom Hanks (Steven Spielberg’s Untitled Pentagon Papers Project) inches up one to land the #3 spot and Denzel Washington (Inner City) and Andrew Garfield (Breathe) make big moves into the top 5 for the first time. Washington, whose film just started shooting a few weeks ago, lands at #4 with just over half of the Gold Rush Gang sending votes his way on the thought that the film will be a 2017 release. The moment that’s official you can expect the rest to follow. Garfield, who became a first time Oscar nominee this year (for Hacksaw Ridge) is looking for an afterglow nomination in yet another biopic, this time as a man paralyzed by polio. It’s almost like he’s got Eddie Redmayne on speed dial in terms of finding ‘Oscar bait’ material.

Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) stays put at the kids table, just a few points out at #6. The 20-year old is going to have a hard time breaking into that top 5 unless his film becomes a top 5 contender itself (as some of the GRG think it will be). Bryan Cranston (Last Flag Flying), Chadwick Boseman (Marshall) and Benedict Cumberbatch (The Current War) make incremental steps up but for Cumberbatch, his film is out our BP predictions right now so that may be short lived.

The two big drops this month are Matt Damon (Downsizing) and Donald Sutherland (The Leisure Seeker). Sutherland is still searching for his first Oscar nomination and although The Leisure Seeker could be his ticket it’s getting further away by the month, especially since Sony Pictures Classics also has CMBYN.

Three debuts hit this month; Domhnall Gleeson in Goodbye Christopher Robin, Adam Sandler in the Cannes-bound The Meyerowitz Stories and Charlie Plummer in Lean on Pete. Plummer just landed the prime role in Ridley Scott’s film about the 1970s Getty kidnapping plot.

Here are the 2018 Oscar predictions for Best Actor for May 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 – Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Fashion Project	2	2	2	2		2	7	4	2	3	73
3	Tom Hanks – Untitled Steven Spielberg Pentagon Papers Project	3	7	5	3	7	3	3	3	3	7	66
4	Denzel Washington – Inner City (possibly 2018)		3			3		2	2	4	2	50
5	Andrew Garfield – Breathe	6	6		5	5	5	5	7	6	5	49

6	Timothée Chalamet – Call Me by Your Name	7	4	10	7	2	8	6	8	5	6	47
7	Bryan Cranston – Last Flag Flying		5		6	4	6	4	6	7	4	46
8	Chadwick Boseman – Marshall	4		4	4		4	10		10	10	31
9	Benedict Cumberbatch – The Current War	10		6	10	6	9	8	5		8	26
10	Matt Damon – Downsizing			8	8		7			8		13
11	Hugh Jackman – The Greatest Showman	9	9	9	9		10		10	9		12
12	Ben Stiller – Brad’s Status		8			8		9			9	10
13	Donald Sutherland – The Leisure Seeker			7					9			6
13	Jake Gyllenhaal – Stronger	5										6
15	Domhnall Gleeson – Goodbye Christopher Robin	8										3
16	Adam Sandler, The Meyerowitz Stories					9						2
16	Charlie Plummer – Lean on Pete		10			10						2

	OTHER CONTENDERS
	Ali Fazal – Victoria and Abdul
	Andrew Garfield – Under the Silver Lake
	Anthony Mackie – Unititled Kathryn Bigelow Detriot Riots Project
	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
	Fionn Whitehead – Dunkirk
	Idris Elba – The Mountain Between Us
	Jack O’Connell – Untitled Alexander McQueen biopic (likely 2018)
	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
	Joaquin Phoenix – You Were Never Really Here
	Jonathan Pryce – The Wife
	Kenneth Branagh – Murder on the Orient Express
	Liam Neeson – Felt
	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

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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), 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.