2019 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTOR (September)

Bradley Cooper makes not only the biggest jump on this month’s chart he shoots all the way to the #1 spot. The hype is real for A Star Is Born not just as an incredible directorial debut but for what many are calling the best performance of his career. He’s already loved within the industry and has four Oscar nominations under his belt. With A Star Is Born he could score as many as five or six across multiple categories and we haven’t seen that kind of actor-turned-director love from the Academy since George Clooney, who is now a two-time Oscar winner for his efforts.

Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased), Christian Bale (in the newly titled Vice) and John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) keep themselves snug in the 2-3-4 spots, respectively.

Viggo Mortensen also makes a huge move, bounding from #10 last month all the way into the top 5 with Green Book, which took the Toronto International Film Festival by storm and winning the People’s Choice Award last weekend. That catapults the two-time Oscar nominee into top tier territory. 

Two-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe is the month’s other main chart mover, entering the top 10 with At Eternity’s Gate.

With rises there must be falls and with Mortensen’s move into the top 5 that pushes his co-studio competitor Ryan Gosling, also a two-time Oscar nominee, down a peg to #6. Steve Carell (Beautiful Boy) and Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) also tumble but it’s only September and this is a fluid category with much more room and time to move. For Hugh Jackman however, it might be the end of the road. His vehicle, The Front Runner, went off the cliff with reviews and, like Gary Hart’s political career, likely stops here.

Two debuts to the chart in the form of John Cho (the sleeper indie hit Searching) and John C. Reilly (Stan & Ollie) and the return of Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther round out the month.

Here are my 2019 Oscar predictions in Best Actor for September 20, 2018.

Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – chart debut

1. Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born (Warner Bros)
2. Lucas Hedges – Boy Erased (Focus Features)
3. Christian Bale – Vice (Annapurna)
4. John David Washington – BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)
5. Viggo Mortensen – Green Book (Universal)

6. Ryan Gosling – First Man (Universal)
7. Steve Carell – Beautiful Boy (Amazon)
8. Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody (20th Century Fox)
9. Robert Redford – The Old Man & the Gun (Fox Searchlight)
10. Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate (CBS Films)

NEXT UP

Chadwick Boseman – Black Panther (Disney)
John Cho – Searching (Screen Gems)
Ethan Hawke – First Reformed (A24)
Hugh Jackman – The Front Runner (Sony)
Brad Pitt – Ad Astra (20th Century Fox)
John C. Reilly – Stan and Ollie (Sony Pictures Classics)

OTHER CONTENDERS

Steve Carell – Welcome to Marwen (Universal)
Ben Foster – Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)
Michael B. Jordan – Creed II (Warner Bros)
Tim Blake Nelson – The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix)
Robert Pattinson – High Life (A24)
Joaquin Phoenix – The Sisters Brothers (Annapurna)
Joaquin Phoenix – You Were Never Really Here (Amazon)
John C. Reilly – The Sisters Brothers (Annapurna)

2019 Oscar Predictions: BEST DIRECTOR (September)

2019 Oscar Predictions: ADAPTED and ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (September)

2019 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTRESS (September)

2019 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (September)

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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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