2027 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTRESS (May)
With the surprising new rules set by the Academy’s Board of Governors last week, expanding the acting categories to allow an individual to earn more than one nomination in a single category, we all immediately started thinking about when it will happen and to whom. After putting together my first Best Actor contender list for this season, it seems unlikely that’s where it could from, were it to happen right away. With simply more opportunities, it’s in the supporting categories that I think we’ll see the fruition of this new rule and this season already has a potential contender.
After earning a Best Actress nomination for the Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy of a Fall, Sandra Hüller broke through in a big way in 2023, building on the healthy European career she had cultivated for years (including her first breakthrough with 2017’s Toni Erdmann), the German-born actress hit American mainstream earlier this year with her supporting role in the massive Amazon MGM Studios hit Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling. But she’ll also have the main female role in Digger, which is looking to be Tom Cruise’s potential Oscar comeback, where I think her chances might be even better. Not to go crazy but she two more roles coming, her Berlin Film Festival-winning Rose and Fatherland (both MUBI), which comes to the Cannes Film Festival next week (imagine if she won Best Actress there?) While we know that Rose is a leading role, I’m pretty sure Fatherland is too so I’m not going to position her here in supporting, which would actually put her in contention for double nominations in both categories. Ok, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Or maybe…
But, Hüller isn’t the only contender in play for multiple citations this year. An Oscar winner in this category, Anne Hathaway has no less than five films this year: the already released Mother Mary and The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the upcoming The Odyssey, The End of Oak Street and Verity, but as of now only The Odyssey is (or feels) like a true supporting role, but I could be wrong. Another previous Oscar winner in this category could be mounting a return and that’s Penélope Cruz for The Invite, receiving some of the best notices of her career and the best in the four-people in one apartment film, and the upcoming Cannes In Competition title La Bola Nega (The Black Ball). While we’ll know more next week about her role and performance in that film, she’s definitely a contender for The Invite if the summer release for the indie can stay afloat.
Here are my very early 2027 Oscar nomination predictions in Supporting Actress for May.
| 1. Sandra Hüller – Digger (Warner Bros) |
| 2. Sandra Hüller – Project Hail Mary (Amazon MGM Studios) |
| 3. Penélope Cruz – The Invite (A24) |
| 4. Mariana Di Girolamo – Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight Pictures) |
| 5. Esmé Creed-Miles – Sense and Sensibility (Focus Features) |
| 6. Anne Hathaway – The Odyssey (Universal Pictures) |
| 7. Wumni Mosaku – The Social Reckoning (Sony Pictures/Columbia) |
| 8. Scarlett Johansson – Paper Tiger (NEON) |
| 9. Rebecca Hall – The Man I Love (TBD) |
| 10. Lesley Manville – Jack of Spades (TBD) |
Next up: Glenn Close – La bola negra (The Black Ball) (TBD), Penélope Cruz – La bola nega (The Black Ball) (TBD), Elizabeth Debicki – The Adventures of Cliff Booth (Netflix), Catherine Deneuve – Parallel Tales (TBD), Havana Rose Liu – Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Musical Comedy (A24), Nia Long – Michael (Lionsgate), Tao Okamoto – All of a Sudden (NEON), Parker Posey – Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight Pictures), Maxime Peake – I Swear (Sony Pictures Classics)
Amy Adams – Klara and the Sun (Sony Pictures/Columbia)
Adele – Cry to Heaven (TBD)
India Amarteifio – Clarissa (NEON)
Gillian Anderson – Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (MUBI)
Pamela Anderson – Place to Be (TBD)
Patricia Arquette – The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde (TBD)
Ashley Bailey Johnson – Untitled Mike Leigh Film (Bleecker Street)
Halle Bailey – Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Musical Comedy (A24)
Caitriona Balfe – A Long Winter (TBD)
Caitriona Balfe – Tenzing (Apple Original Films)
Emily Beecham – The Queen of Fashion (TBD)
Nicole Beharie – By Any Means (Paramount Pictures)
Monica Bellucci – The Birthday Party (TBD)
Emily Blunt – The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th Century Fox)
Anna Calder-Marshall – Queen at Sea (TBD)
Gemma Chan – Josephine (Summerian Films)
Cho Yeo-jong – Possible Love (Netflix)
Arden Choi – Perfect Girl (TBD)
Glenn Close – The Black Ball (TBD)
Olivia Colman – Elsinore (TBD)
Jodie Comer – The Death of Robin Hood (A24)
Olivia Cooke – The Talent for Murder (TBD)
Camille Cottin – The Riders (A24)
Esmé Creed-Miles – Sense and Sensibility (Focus Features)
Penélope Cruz – La bola nega (The Black Ball) (TBD)
Penélope Cruz – The Invite (A24)
Jamie Lee Curtis – The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Sony Pictures Classics)
Emma D’Arcy – Digger (Warner Bros)
Elizabeth Debicki – The Adventures of Cliff Booth (Netflix)
Catherine Deneuve – Gentle Monster (TBD)
Catherine Deneuve – Parallel Tales (TBD)
Mariana Di Girolamo – Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight Pictures)
Michelle Dockery – Queen of Fashion (TBD)
Daisy Edgar-Jones – A Place in Hell (NEON)
Virginie Efira – Parallel Tales (TBD)
Vera Farmiga – Billion Dollar Spy (Lionsgate)
Patsy Ferran – Jack of Spades (TBD)
Marina Fois – The Beloved (TBD)
Coco Greenstone – The Riders (A24)
Carla Gugino – The Adventures of Cliff Booth (Netflix)
Alana Haim – The Drama (A24)
Rebecca Hall – The Man I Love (TBD)
Anne Hathaway – The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th Century Studios)
Anne Hathaway – The Odyssey (Universal Pictures)
May Hong – Perfect Girl (TBD)
Sandra Hüller – Digger (Warner Bros)
Sandra Hüller – Project Hail Mary (Amazon MGM Studios)
Jeon Do-yeon – Possible Love (Netflix)
Jeon Somi – Perfect Girl (TBD)
Scarlett Johansson – Paper Tiger (NEON)
Emilia Jones – Tony (TBD)
Rashida Jones – Good Sex (Netflix)
Reika Kirishima – Hot Spot (Focus Features)
Thinley Lhamo – Tenzing (Apple Original Films)
Greta Lee – Late Fame (Magnolia Pictures)
Margarita Levieva – Behemoth! (Searchlight Pictures)
Havana Rose Liu – Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Musical Comedy (A24)
Nia Long – Michael (Lionsgate)
Natasha Lyonne – Klara and the Sun (Sony Pictures/Columbia)
Lesley Manville – Jack of Spades (TBD)
Tatiana Maslany – The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Sony Pictures Classics)
Frances McDormand – Jack of Spades (TBD)
Thomasin McKenzie – The Uprising (Focus Features)
Wumni Mosaku – The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd (TBD)
Wumni Mosaku – The Social Reckoning (Sony Pictures/Columbia)
Thandiwe Newton – Cry to Heaven (TBD)
Julianne Nicholson – The Riders (A24)
Tao Okamoto – All of a Sudden (NEON)
Maxime Peake – I Swear (Sony Pictures Classics)
Bernadette Peters – No One Cares (A24)
Missi Pyle – The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd (TBD)
Parker Posey – Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight Pictures)
Margaret Qualley – The Dog Stars (20th Century Studios)
Vanessa Redgrave – Sweetsick (Searchlight Pictures)
Mason Reeves – Josephine (Summerian Films)
Miranda Richardson – The Duchess and I (TBD)
Miranda Richardson – Queen of Fashion (TBD)
AnnaSophia Robb – I Play Rocky (Amazon MGM Studios)
Isabella Rossellini – The Duchess and I (TBD)
Meg Ryan – Good Sex (Netflix)
Adeline Rudolph – Perfect Girl (TBD)
Aitana Sanchez-Gijon – Bitter Christmas (Sony Pictures Classics)
Susan Sarandon – The Echo Chamber (TBD)
Varvara Shmykova – Minotaur (TBD)
Anya Taylor-Joy – Dune: Messiah (Warner Bros)
Marisa Tomei – She Gets It From Me (TBD)
Eva Victor – Behemoth! (Searchlight Pictures)
Alicia Vikander – The Echo Chamber (TBD)
Katherine Waterston – The Uprising (Focus Features)
Luna Wedler – Silent Friend (1-2 Special)
Merritt Wever – Primetime (A24)
Olivia Wilde – Behemoth! (Searchlight Pictures)
Sophia Wilde – Digger (Warner Bros)
Michelle Williams – A Place in Hell (NEON)
Rachel Zegler – She Gets It From Me (TBD)
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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