2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (April)

Like with Supporting Actress, category placement could swing a lot of ways with any number of films and performances that could be in contention this year. Are Christian Bale and Matt Damon co-leads in Ford v Ferrari? Probably, but I’m going to hedge my bets and have them in here, too.

The Irishman, from Martin Scorsese and Netflix, is going to put two Oscar winners head-to-head with each other in Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, the latter’s win from Scorsese’s Goodfellas, of course. While I hear that Pacino’s is the bigger role (he also has a small part in Tarantino’s OUATIH) and might be the wiser push, this could be a really big comeback for Pesci, who’s been out of the limelight for quite some time. In fact, this is his first feature film appearance since 2010’s Love Ranch.

Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks has had a tough time earning even another nomination recently, with narrow misses in Best Picture nominees like Bridge of Spies (that won Mark Rylance the Supporting Actor Oscar) and most notably, his snub for Captain Phillips after securing every precursor (SAG, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, BAFTA) along the way. Playing the iconic Mr. Rogers in Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood could be his ticket but then, we said that when he played Walt Disney in a supporting role in Saving Mr. Banks.

Willem Dafoe missed out on a Supporting Actor Oscar win two years ago despite winning the critics’ prizes with the NYFCC, LAFCA, NBR and NSFC for The Florida Project – making him the only supporting actor contender in history to get those and lose the Oscar – and then returned last season with a Best Actor nomination for At Eternity’s Gate. It’s clear the Academy likes him (but maybe doesn’t love him) and he could very well come back again this year with The Last Thing He Wanted from Dee Rees. The film is also a Netflix property, so it will be interesting to see where they prioritize their contenders here.

Moving down, any number of guys could find themselves in the top 5 depending on how their studios treat their films, what festivals they can generate buzz from and again, category placement. Anthony Hopkins (The Pope) is probably going supporting; I imagine Brad Pitt (OUATIH) would too. But what about Taika Waititi? He seems more likely here but then so does most of his cast (including another supporting actor contender, Oscar winner Sam Rockwell). It’s April, who knows.

If Wes Anderson’s new film, The French Dispatch, makes the 2019 cut (he says he thinks it might) that opens the door for a wealth of contenders including Dafoe, Oscar winners Benicio del Toro and Christoph Waltz plus Oscar nominees Timothée Chalamet and Bill Murray.

What about James Gray’s Ad Astra? Is that even coming out this year? This loooong in development and production is still slated for a May 24th release but there is nary a poster, teaser or word to its existence. Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland are possibilities but very long shots at best until something changes.

Here are my unranked 2020 Oscar Nomination predictions in Supporting Actor for April.

2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: BEST PICTURE (April)

2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: BEST DIRECTOR (April)

2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: BEST ACTOR (April)

2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: BEST ACTRESS (April)

2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTRESS (April)

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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.

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