AwardsWatch - FINAL 2019 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTOR

FINAL 2019 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTOR

Like Supporting Actor, the frontrunner in Best Actor has also jumped hurdles and through hoops to avoid the pitfalls of his problematic film to come out largely unscathed.

Back in the early fall there wasn’t much reason to think that Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) would make too big a splash other than maybe having some decent box office. Little did most of us know that the Queen bio film was going to be an $850M worldwide smash. The largely savage critical response definitely tricked me to put Malek’s Freddie Mercury, and the film, on the lower end of predictions for too long (to my own detriment) and even the controversy over fired director Bryan Singer’s continued sexual assault allegations hasn’t stopped the film from multiple earning guild wins, five Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Malek the Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA Best Actor prizes.

It’s doubtful Christian Bale (Vice) can present any real chance of an upset, despite his film’s across the board nomination support. Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) should have been able to be an actual contender but fumbled his own campaign in hopes of a Best Director nomination that didn’t even transpire. Plus, the Oscars love biopics and real-life characters, even when they sidestep facts for fiction at nearly every opportunity.

1. Rami Malek – BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (BAFTA, GG, SAG)

2. Christian Bale – VICE (BFCA, GG)

3. Bradley Cooper – A STAR IS BORN

4. Viggo Mortensen – GREEN BOOK

5. Willem Dafoe – AT ETERNITY’S GATE

BAFTA – British Film Academy Awards

BFCA – Broadcast Film Critics Association (Critics Choice)

GG – Golden Globe

SAG – Screen Actors Guild

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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.